Buy now, pay later (BNPL) payments provider Afterpay has rolled out its European service, Clearpay, to retailers throughout France and Spain. Italian retailers will start offering the platform later this month, according to a Monday (March 15) announcement emailed to PYMNTS.
“In the last year, global eCommerce grew faster than it had in the last 10 years,” Clearpay Co-founder and Co-CEO Nick Molnar said in the announcement. “By introducing Clearpay, we are giving Europeans a better way to access the things they want and need in their lives via a flexible payment service that allows shoppers to spend their own money and pay over time – instead of turning to expensive loans and credit cards, which come with interest, fees and revolving debt.”
Clearpay comes into the Southern Europe market following its recent purchase of Spanish-based payment firm Pagantis, and the company has obtained the regulatory green light from the Bank of Spain to provide its products throughout Spain, Germany, Portugal, Italy and France. By using Clearpay, shoppers can get merchandise immediately and make payments in four installments over a short timeframe.
As previously reported, younger consumers are navigating their early-stage careers and important earnings years under the shadow of the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis, while a number of individuals in this cohort entered the job market amid the 2008 Great Recession. When also figuring in the increasing education costs and sluggish wage growth, millennials and members of Generation Z have found it more challenging to pay out-of-pocket for more sizable, high-value purchases.
The March edition of the PYMNTS’ Buy Now, Pay Later Tracker® looks into how financial hurdles such as these are leading a number of younger consumers to turn to credit offerings such as BNPL.
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