Bonsai, Afterpay Team on BNPL Program for Online Publishers

Native checkout company Bonsai and buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform Afterpay on Wednesday (Oct. 13) announced a collaboration on an online shopping program that cuts down on the checkout experience by four or five clicks.

Online shoppers can choose Afterpay’s BNPL option whenever they make their purchases.

“Bonsai and Afterpay have both been at the forefront of rethinking the way we shop online, so this partnership made perfect sense,” said Saad Siddiqui, co-founder and CEO at Bonsai, in the joint announcement.

“We’re building a native commerce ecosystem that brings publishers like BuzzFeed, merchants and consumers together at the right moment, and with the right payment options available to them, to make online purchasing truly seamless,” he said.

Buzzfeed was the first digital publisher to join the program.

Bonsai says it offers publishers three or four times the commission rate for each sale compared to traditional affiliates, according to the joint announcement.

“In today’s digital world, consumers expect to be able to buy things with ease and flexibility — no matter where they may be online,” said Melissa Davis, chief revenue officer at Afterpay, in the announcement. “Great media services like BuzzFeed can now extend beyond product recommendations to be a full funnel shopping experience, and now shoppers can use those services to spend their money responsibly and pay over time with Afterpay.”

Related: Report: Afterpay’s BNPL Services Boost Incremental Sales by $8.2B to US Merchants

Accenture research earlier this month revealed Afterpay has driven $4.5 billion in net benefits to merchants in 2021, through $8.2 billion in incremental sales for retailers.

The Accenture study, titled “US Economic Impact of Buy Now, Pay Later,” shows that Afterpay has boosted business for retailers while also helping shoppers avoid credit card interest and fees.

The $8.2 billion in new revenue this year comes from the larger amount of incremental sales through increased customer engagement, larger order sizes, more customers added and more repeat purchases.

That Afterpay spending supported 70,000 jobs in the American economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.