Buy now, pay later (BNPL) payments platform Afterpay is teaming up with retailer Gap to offer flexible spending options as the holiday shopping season gears up.
“Collaborating with Afterpay gives our customers the power of choice when shopping across our family of brands,” John Strain, chief digital and technology officer at Gap, said in a statement on Wednesday (Nov. 11).
Participating Gap brands include Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta.
“By adding Afterpay to our other payment options, we’re able to provide a more customized shopping experience, give our customers additional convenience and control, and reach a younger demographic who may not have been able to shop with us before,” Strain added.
When consumers shop Gap brands online, they can choose Afterpay at checkout and pay for purchases in four interest-free installments.
“We are proud to partner with Gap Inc. to bring Afterpay to such a powerful set of brands and their customers,” said Melissa Davis, head of North America at Afterpay.
“This partnership stems from our shared desire to enhance the digital shopping experience for the very valuable Millennial and Gen Z consumers who prefer to spend their own money and pay over time with Afterpay.”
The addition of Gap rounds out a successful first quarter for Afterpay, which is averaging about 15,000 new customers daily, totaling 6.5 million. The company has more than 14,000 merchants in its shop directory. The platform added Gap — its biggest merchant to date — due to a high number of requests by shoppers.
The Australian startup founded in 2010 has added a number of new brands over the summer, including Charlotte Tilbury, Fenty Skin, Fila, Huda Beauty, Puma and Vineyard Vines. The BNPL market includes Klarna, Splitit, Openpay, FuturePay, Sezzle, Affirm, Quadpay, and others.
A PYMNTS survey done in conjunction with PayPal indicated that people were looking for a new way to shop, making BNPL hot for the holidays. Research suggests that 48 percent of shoppers who prefer BNPL would not buy from merchants that did not offer it.
Last month, AfterPay partnered with Simon Mall in a national collaboration. It also teamed up with major retailers across the U.S. ahead of the holiday shopping season. Afterpay said that its customers have reported a 300 percent increase in the average order value when shoppers use the platform.
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