Retail Edge Drove Walmart, PayPal Partnerships and Amazon BNPL Deal, Says Synchrony CFO

To say that Synchrony Financial double-clicked on new partnerships and BNPL in its earnings call Tuesday (July 22) is an understatement. Because in fact, it triple-clicked. And according to Synchrony CFO Brian Wenzel, that new focus on new payment products and features is part of a “full spectrum” approach to payments as well as the U.S. consumer that will drive revenue and attract new customers to the brand.

“I don’t think consumers are pulling back any more than they have these past 12 months,” Wenzel told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster after the company reported better than expected Q2 metrics. “When you look at big‑ticket, discretionary purchases across full‑spectrum America, what we’re seeing is a shopper who’s simply more discerning, not disappearing.”

In its second quarter, Synchrony Financial expanded its footprint in the buy now, pay later (BNPL) space by strengthening its partnership with Amazon to offer BNPL, as well as establishing new and renewing existing partnerships with Walmart and PayPal.

The company will power a new credit card program for Walmart — renewing a relationship it had lost to Capital One — through a collaboration with FinTech OnePay. It will offer both a general-purpose and a private-label card embedded in the OnePay app. Walmart has active partnerships with Affirm and Klarna, which Wenzel said can easily live side by side with the new card products.

At Amazon, Synchrony has launched “Synchrony Pay Later,” letting approved customers split purchases of $50 or more into installment payments, an extension of its longstanding relationship. Additionally, Synchrony’s alliance with PayPal now includes issuing a physical PayPal Credit card, enabling cardholders to use BNPL options for everyday purchases and qualifying for six-month promotional financing on certain transactions. Management positioned these initiatives on the earnings call as part of a broader strategy to give consumers more flexible payment options and to drive customer engagement for major retail partners.

Wenzel sees the new deals not as a testament to the richness of the deals struck between Synchrony and its partners, but to the company’s deep understanding of retail and the “full spectrum” of American consumers.

“I think it was less about [having] improved our offer as much as it was [that] they understood our ability to execute it in the retail setting,” he told Webster. “Both digitally, as well as being able to execute in store. And I think they realized that we were able to deliver that. And I think what’s fundamentally different between now and six years ago [when Synchrony last had the Walmart co-brand] is that number one, you have a different value proposition on the card, which will attract a different type of customer. Number two, it will be underwritten differently so it’ll have a lower loss position than it did before. Number three, OnePay is bringing a digital app and digital experience to consumers, which will allow them to reduce some of that friction when they go [in-store] to Walmart.”

In-Store Issues

And if consumers go in-store looking for BNPL they will find options, but as PYMNTS has reported, the payment method has had issues attracting in-store usage. In December 2024 a PYMNTS Intelligence study of Black Friday shoppers that showed BNPL purchases accounted for 7.4% of in-store transactions and observed. “It’s important to note how consumers used the tactile, in-store setting,” the study noted. “They supplemented their online spending with trips to the store. That means that the “main” conduit for commerce was the online channel. And we found, too, that although BNPL options still are a relatively small percentage of transactions, they are highly valued. The Black Friday data shows that shoppers who used BNPL spent more on average than others using credit or debit cards.”

Pressed about that issue by Webster, Wenzel said he’s confident that senior level executives at Walmart and OnePay are much more focused on making BNPL work in-store and that Synchrony’s retail expertise could lead to better in-store adoption.

Walmart has been courting households that earn $100,000 or more, and Wenzel believes the richer rewards and seamless checkout promised by the new card can accelerate that push. “To the extent that you can get same‑day delivery or fresh grocery pickup, you’re going to go upscale probably more so than six years ago,” he said. He added that members of Walmart Plus will see “enhanced benefits,” a tactic Synchrony already uses inside Sam’s Club, another Walmart banner. The card will sit inside Walmart’s own app as well as inside OnePay.

Reading the US Consumer

Investors remain fixated on whether credit losses will keep rising as pandemic-era savings thin out. Wenzel argued that charge‑offs at Synchrony and rivals have been distorted by unusually large 2021‑23 loan vintages created when many lenders relaxed standards as credit scores spiked after stimulus checks. “You had too much credit going to what were probably score‑migrated‑up consumers,” he said. Those borrowers are still working through balances, but trends “have been steady or positive.”

Synchrony tracks discretionary spending in real time across its 62 million active accounts and sees consumers “a little more discerning” on big‑ticket items but willing to trade down rather than stop buying altogether. Recent data show ticket sizes for clothing, cosmetics and restaurant tabs turning positive after three negative quarters, which Wenzel called a “green shoot” for retailers.

Synchrony has issued PayPal Credit since 2004, but shopping cart abandonment in physical stores convinced both companies they needed a tangible card. A pilot launched in the second quarter lets existing PayPal Credit users “opt in” for a plastic card that taps the Mastercard network. “It just provides another channel where the card can be accepted every day,” Wenzel said, calling the product one of Synchrony’s “flagship” offerings alongside its network‑branded dual cards. Wider rollout will depend on PayPal persuading merchants to turn on acceptance at the point of sale.

Synchrony’s fastest‑growing vertical remains its CareCredit business, which offers six- to 24-month promotional financing at 266,000 medical, dental and veterinary locations. The segment benefits from what Wenzel describes as an emotional bond: “You were there when I needed you,” consumers tell the company after using CareCredit to pay a $3,000 vet bill or orthodontic work for a child. With insurers pushing more costs to patients, Synchrony is expanding into fertility, behavioral health and 40 other specialties where average procedure costs run high and traditional credit cards may be maxed out.

After the firm reported second-quarter earnings, Wenzel said investors kept circling back to three themes: “the consumer and credit, when growth comes back and how it’s tied to credit, and the trifecta of an Amazon renewal, our Walmart relationship coming back, and the physical card for PayPal.” By securing all three, Synchrony hopes to show that disciplined underwriting and deep merchant integrations can coexist, and that the market for private‑label and cobranded cards is anything but saturated.