Physical Retail Stores To Participate In Afterpay’s Fifth Biannual Sales Event

Afterpay Day, Afterpay’s biannual national sales event, will extend to physical retail shopping for the first time this March, the buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm announced on Wednesday (March 17).

The event, Afterpay’s fifth, has been extended to run for four days instead of two, from March 25 to March 28, 2021. Consumers can get up to 70 percent off at participating retailers, and have the option to pay for their purchases with Afterpay’s installment plan of four payments without interest.

“Afterpay Day has historically been the biggest driver of sales for merchants across the country,” the press release said. Last Afterpay Day, merchants saw average sales increase by 36 percent and average new customers increase by 46 percent.

Almost 3,000 brands and retailers are participating in this year’s Afterpay Day, both in-store and online, including Aveda, Vera Bradley and Steve Madden. “We have more than doubled the amount of merchants who are offering incredible deals and promotions to their shoppers,” said Melissa Davis, Head of North America at Afterpay, in the press release.

Many merchants will offer promotions exclusive to Afterpay customers, which can be found through the Afterpay Shop Directory. Retailers like Anthropologie, Puma and J. Crew will be among those offering exclusive deals, according to the press release. Customers can also use the Afterpay app to find nearby store locations of participating retailers.

Afterpay recently launched a “Favorites” feature in the firm’s app, which allows shoppers to add items and save them for later, “making planning and budgeting for the sale even easier,” the press release noted. Forty percent of app users have already taken advantage of the Favorites feature.

The fifth biannual Afterpay Day will begin at 3 a.m. ET on Thursday, March 25, and will end at 3 a.m. on Sunday, March 28.

BNPL can offer a boost in traffic to retailers’ physical locations, PYMNTS has found. Forty-eight percent of consumers surveyed in a recent tracker said they would not shop with a merchant that didn’t offer a BNPL or credit option at the point of sale.