Ionia, Certegy Debut BNPL Merchant Offering

Embedded payments and rewards platform Ionia, has rolled out a new buy now, pay later (BNPL) offering with Certegy to try and make a giant network for merchants who need the installment payment services for their own businesses, a press release said.

Certegy works in payments and risk management tech. By working with Ionia’s geo-behavioral marketing technology, the companies will offer a BNPL network for more than 65,000 merchant locations and 75 online stores.

Ionia CEO Marshall Greenwald said the service, called Pay Later, will allow any consumer facing app to “provide its customers a seamless, frictionless interest-free financing experience through the largest merchant network in the US.”

Pay Later will be available initially through mobile rewards pay CrayPay, which is powered by Ionia and lets users shop and earn rewards both in store and online. The service is touted as being safe and having no credit risks, helping customer approval without a credit check.

And Greg Lipari, Certegy VP of Strategy & Commercial Development with Certegy, said the company wants to help merchants ahead of the holidays.

“As the holiday season kicks off, this is a critical time for customers to have digital payment access and flexibility,” he said. “Through our partnership with Ionia, tens of thousands of merchants can now seamlessly bring the advantages of BNPL – including convenient, interest free payment plans – to their customers.”

BNPL has been growing in popularity, particularly with the effects the pandemic has had on the global economy, and PYMNTS wrote that this holiday season will see retailers with mighty tools at their disposal because of it.

Read more: Buy Buttons and BNPL a Powerful Pairing for 2022 Holiday Selling

The combination of BNPL and buy buttons, PYMNTS wrote, could lead to ways for retailers to drive up revenues, along with more expanded POS options.

Ecommerce merchants are re-doing tech stacks and researchers have found that they’re apt to find new opportunities in buy buttons leveraging consumer wants for easier checkout experiences.

In the PYMNTS report “2022 Buy Button Report: Accelerating Checkout Optimization,” it was found that shoppers using a buy button completed their purchases faster, with PayPal being a big facilitator of that.

PayPal Vice President of Shopping and Pay Later Greg Lisiewski said customers were looking for more flexible payment options using PayPal’s Pay Monthly offering, which offers pay later services.

“Pay Monthly builds on our commitment to deliver leading payment solutions that offer customers choice to ensure checkout matches their needs and budgeting preferences,” he said.