BNPL Gambit: Power Moves in the Payments Arena

BNPL players are doing more than just changing the way consumers pay. Many are also revising their own operating manifesto. Whether repositioning on stock exchanges or delisting for a fiscal edge, these strategic decisions speak to the industry’s renewed bigger-picture outlooks: the pursuit of growth, innovation and financial optimization.

BNPL firms continue to radically defy traditional installment models — and consumers are reaping the benefits. From lengthier payment schedules to instant mobile checkouts, the lines are now officially blurred between convenience and innovative payment strategies. This is no longer just retail financing with a lollipop twist. This is financial empowerment — in a shopping cart.

eCommerce is up against two existential challenges: the abandoned cart and financial volatility. In response, BNPL leaders are rolling out intuitive widgets for businesses and leveraging AI to mitigate risk. eCommerce metamorphosis is firmly underway.

The buy now, pay later (BNPL) FinTech space is anything but static. BNPL providers have recently introduced a raft of creative and innovative payments solutions while also rethinking the strategic tenets of their own operations. From going all-in on Wall Street to exiting traditional exchanges and even leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to handle risk management, these firms are clearly making bold bets on innovation and financial agility. The BNPL space is no longer just about providing consumers with a new way to “pay-in-four.” Rather, it has its sights set on reweaving the fabric of the digital payments experience.

BNPL’s Tug of War: A Game of Public vs. Private Play
BNPL’s Evolution: Beyond Four to Evermore
BNPL’s Next Beat: Harnessing Technology to Recast eCommerce Dynamics
The BNPL Sprint: Decoding Tomorrow’s Payments Today

BNPL’s Tug of War: A Game of Public vs. Private Play

A BNPL stalwart sails away from the mainstream.

BNPL player Splitit charts a course less traveled as it waves goodbye to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Armed with a $60 million capital commitment, the firm is pointing a compass toward a different trajectory for growth and renewed innovation. However, this no ordinary detour. Delisting and relocating to a tax-friendly jurisdiction hint at the heightened operational agility and fiscal benefits such a move can offer.

Wall Street’s bright lights beckon.

While Splitit has sidestepped Wall Street’s spotlight, Sezzle has embraced it with open arms. The company, already a familiar name at ASX, recently announced its direct listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market, a move that could supercharge its global investor base. A shuffle of symbols from “SZL” to “SEZL” marks more than just a strategic step, however. It echoes an evolving industry’s bold ambitions.

Strategic exchanges

BNPL giants tactically move between financial markets, eyeing global reach and a fiscal edge.

A case of delisting that unlocks BNPL potential.

With high-interest rates raising the stakes in the BNPL game, one player is no longer just tweaking payment options. It is rethinking home turf. By walking back a public listing that would allow a leap from its current base in Atlanta to the Cayman Islands, Splitit has its sights on a trifecta of gains: streamlined regulatory compliance, slashed operational costs and unleashed global scalability — FinTech strategy repurposed for an uncertain time.

BNPL’s Evolution: Beyond Four to Evermore

Two seconds

The time it takes to check out with SplititExpress

BNPL’s next wave is more than just four payments.

Hold on to your wallets! The BNPL game is changing gears. Only “pay-in-four”? Not anymore! Klarna now offers consumers the option to play the long game — up to 24 months. Meanwhile, Sezzle refuses to sit on the sidelines. The firm is custom-tailoring limits based on how swank your credit history is and how much love you have shown the company. These are no ’80s installment plans, but inherently flexible payment options for a new era of digital shopping.

Buy now, pay anywhere.

Who said BNPL is only for splurge shopping? Sezzle is rewriting the rules with Sezzle Pay Anywhere, a move that offers consumers super installment powers anywhere Visa is accepted. Bills, online sprees or just a coffee run — all are fair game. Looking for cash back and credit building? Sezzle is packing a punch by offering a “reset button” to consumers battling to strengthen their credit profiles. To consumers’ call for more control with fewer boundaries, Sezzle’s response is “Challenge accepted.”

Blink and miss the two-second checkout.

Remember when “instant” checkouts took minutes? Those days feel prehistoric. The demand for speed by today’s consumers has met its match in Splitit’s unveiling of SplititExpress, a mobile checkout experience that is speed. Online shoppers can breeze through mobile checkouts almost as fast as the blink of an eye — under two seconds, to be exact. GPay and Apple Pay for installments? Check. A more than 85% approval rate? Check. BNPL has never been so flexible and blazing fast.

BNPL’s Next Beat: Harnessing Technology to Recast eCommerce Dynamics

Bypass the bane of cart abandonment.

Anxious about consumers hovering over the checkout button but then ghosting? Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands meet Cashfree Payments’ BNPL Plus, a code-free payments widget designed for the D2C market. The tool amplifies the visibility of flexible payment options — think equal monthly installments (EMI) and pay later, for example — right on product pages. The result? Cart abandonment rates plummet as much as 30%, while average order values swell up to 40%. Digital shopping just got its latest adrenaline boost.

30%

decrease in cart abandonment by offering flexible payment options on product pages

Two-step to a new BNPL rhythm.

Sezzle is not just setting the pace. The company is orchestrating a payments symphony. With the launch of the Pay-in-2 option, Sezzle is set to capture not only big-ticket items but also every slice of daily life, from groceries to monthly subscriptions. This is not merely a buy-now phenomenon. It’s a live-now, pay-later revolution. The takeaway? BNPL is evolving, offering consumers a kaleidoscope of payment possibilities far beyond traditional installment plans.

BNPL banks on AI.

Recent banking crises sent shockwaves through the financial world, but BNPL firms did more than just brace for impact — they evolved with cutting-edge algorithms. Sezzle’s machine learning model, Prophet, for example, trimmed default rates from 3.2% to a lean 1.8% within a year. Meanwhile, Affirm leverages AI to fine-tune credit terms on the fly. As volatility continues to call the shots, AI looks less like a luxury and more like a necessity in BNPL’s survival toolkit.

The BNPL Sprint: Decoding Tomorrow’s Payments Today

BNPL continues to reshape the contours of the digital payments experience. Businesses stand to benefit from this transformation by tapping consumers’ preferences for financial flexibility and faster checkout experiences — but only if they act.

Next steps?

Redefine the payments experience. Traditional payment methods are now simply one choice among a mosaic of payment options for online shoppers. With BNPL providers offering features such as AI-driven risk management and rapid checkout experiences, adopting these platforms is more critical than ever for businesses to remain competitive.
Recognize the importance of financial flexibility. Periodic payments are only the tip of the iceberg. BNPL provides consumers with the economic elasticity they desire in their financial decision-making. Implement BNPL to capture a bigger audience and channel awareness about changing economic realities and consumer sentiment.
Collaborate to elevate. The business of integrating BNPL is layered. Establish partnerships with seasoned BNPL FinTechs. These experts streamline technical adoption and guide the way to regulatory compliance, helping to ensure seamless payments experiences for both businesses and their customers.
Trademark trust. Trust is the bedrock of brand loyalty and customer retention. Offer and clearly communicate transparent payment terms to foster loyalty and fortify brand reputation.

BNPL emerged from a tumultuous period to prove that it is more than just a passing fad. For today’s eCommerce businesses planning on seizing tomorrow, the message is clear: Embrace an evolved checkout experience or calculate the cost of missed opportunities.

About

Sezzle is a payments company on a mission to financially empower the next generation. Sezzle’s payment platform increases purchasing power for millions of consumers by offering interest-free installment plans at online stores and in-store locations. When consumers apply, approval is instant, and their credit scores are not impacted unless the consumer elects to opt in to Sezzle’s credit-building feature, Sezzle Up. This increase in purchasing power for consumers leads to increased sales and basket sizes for the more than 41,000 active merchants that offer Sezzle.
As the only B Corp in FinTech, Sezzle proves that all industries — even payments — can do their part to provide solutions and make a positive impact today and into the future. For more information visit Sezzle.com.

PYMNTS Intelligence is a leading global data and analytics platform that uses proprietary data and methods to provide actionable insights on what’s now and what’s next in payments, commerce and the digital economy. Its team of data scientists include leading economists, econometricians, survey experts, financial analysts and marketing scientists with deep experience in the application of data to the issues that define the future of the digital transformation of the global economy. This multi-lingual team has conducted original data collection and analysis in more than three dozen global markets for some of the world’s leading publicly traded and privately held firms.

The PYMNTS Intelligence team that produced this Tracker:
Managing Director: Aitor Ortiz
Senior Writer: Randall Brown

We are interested in your feedback on this report. If you have questions or comments, or if you would like to subscribe to this report, please email us at feedback@pymnts.com.

Disclaimer

The FinTech Tracker^® Series may be updated periodically. While reasonable efforts are made to keep the content accurate and up to date, PYMNTS MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, ADEQUACY, OR RELIABILITY OF OR THE USE OF OR RESULTS THAT MAY BE GENERATED FROM THE USE OF THE INFORMATION OR THAT THE CONTENT WILL SATISFY YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR EXPECTATIONS. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND ON AN “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE CONTENT IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. PYMNTS SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY FOR ANY INTERRUPTIONS IN THE CONTENT THAT IS PROVIDED AND DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THE CONTENT, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT AND TITLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, AND, IN SUCH CASES, THE STATED EXCLUSIONS DO NOT APPLY. PYMNTS RESERVES THE RIGHT AND SHOULD NOT BE LIABLE SHOULD IT EXERCISE ITS RIGHT TO MODIFY, INTERRUPT, OR DISCONTINUE THE AVAILABILITY OF THE CONTENT OR ANY COMPONENT OF IT WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE.
PYMNTS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, AND, IN PARTICULAR, SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, OR DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF REVENUE, OR LOSS OF USE, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE CONTENT, WHETHER SUCH DAMAGES ARISE IN CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, TORT, UNDER STATUTE, IN EQUITY, AT LAW, OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF PYMNTS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW FOR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, AND IN SUCH CASES SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS DO NOT APPLY. THE ABOVE DISCLAIMERS AND LIMITATIONS ARE PROVIDED BY PYMNTS AND ITS PARENTS, AFFILIATED AND RELATED COMPANIES, CONTRACTORS, AND SPONSORS, AND EACH OF ITS RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, MEMBERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, CONTENT COMPONENT PROVIDERS, LICENSORS, AND ADVISERS.
Components of the content original to and the compilation produced by PYMNTS is the property of PYMNTS and cannot be reproduced without its prior written permission.
The FinTech Tracker^® Series is a registered trademark of What’s Next Media & Analytics, LLC (“PYMNTS”).

FinTech Tracker^® Series Report

BNPL’s Gambit: Power Moves in the Payments Arena