The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Chinese e-commerce major, Alibaba will start offering a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) service to its customers in Europe.
The company will offer its service through its affiliate Ant Group’s Alipay. Alipay has tied up with fintech company Splitit Payments to provide a BNPL option to European customers of AliExpress, BABA’s international online marketplace.
Users of the “Pay After Delivery” service can pay for their merchandise in installments via their credit cards. As part of the Splitit-Alipay tie-up, a hold will be put on shoppers’ credit cards when they make purchases on AliExpress. Customers must first confirm receipt of their goods before the money is transferred to the sellers.
This BNPL service will be first be rolled out in Germany, Spain, and France before expanding to other international markets as demand for buy now, pay later services continues to gain traction worldwide.
New data from a survey commissioned by UK-based financial education charity, the Centre for Financial Capability has also revealed that whilst younger groups are still the most likely to consider buy now, pay later services demand for such products has increased significantly among older people.
According to the survey, almost a fifth of over-65-year-olds have used these services or intend to do so in the next 12 months, compared to less than 10 per cent last year.
