UK Shoppers at Westfield Malls to Get BNPL Option

Customers at more than a dozen stores in Westfield’s London and Stratford City shopping centers can now utilize a buy now, pay later (BNPL) option while shopping, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (April 6).

Clearpay Finance Solutions, a Manchester, England-based payment processing provider, has partnered with mall landlord Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield SE. The report added that the French commercial real estate company is continuing to expand BNPL into brick-and-mortar stores globally.

Clearpay — which is known as Afterpay outside of Europe — is collaborating with Westfield to provide shoppers with more payment options in stores as the retail sector recovers from the pandemic, co-founder and co-CEO Anthony Eisen told the news outlet.

“We are fully committed to the U.K. market and looking to grow the team,” he said.

Clearpay said it has has 2.5 million customers in the country, and Eisen said BNPL could soon account for 10% of eCommerce spending, the report noted. Spending networks such as Klarna and Affirm continue to grow as younger customers prefer to spread the cost of purchases without using credit cards.

Eisen said he welcomed regulation and said the process had been engaging and learning. At the recent Innovate Finance Global Summit in London, Eisen said the discussions in the U.K. are like the conversations in Australia.

As many as 20% of Australians use BNPL. The pay plan is different from credit cards, and Eisen said it typically covers smaller purchases and quicker repayments.

“We recognize millennials and Gen Z don’t want to sit in a world of revolving debt,” he added.

Last month, Clearpay and cross-border payment platform Thunes also formed a BNPL partnership.

See also: Cross-Border Payment Platform Thunes Teams With Clearpay on BNPL

The partnership lets Thunes offer Clearpay’s BNPL product to its network of gateways, merchants and marketplace partners, the company said.