How to add Buy-Now-Pay-Later to your checkouts

What is Buy Now, Pay Later?

Well, the simple answer is - you buy something now, but you pay later 😎

BNPL is a payment option that enables shoppers to purchase something and split the payments over a period of time. Think of it as quick and easy, interest-free financing for the buyer. The number of payments and payback period depends on the buyer and who provides the BNPL agreement, as they offer different ways of going about it.

The difference between this and the more traditional way of splitting payments or using the “budget” function on your credit card is that the seller gets the full amount paid upfront, and there are no interest or fees for the buyer.

This almost sounds too good to be true.

How does it work exactly

BNPL is used by online sellers to boost sales by offering their customers an easy way to buy products.

When a buyer wants to buy something using BNPL, they effectively sign an agreement with the BNPL provider during the checkout process. This is not the tedious credit check process that everyone has learnt to accept, these guys use AI and other nifty tech to assess the buyers credit risk and approve the transaction in a matter of seconds.

The process is roughly as follows:

The seller has a merchant account with a BNPL provider - like Klarna, Afterpay, Clearpay, PayPal - and offer this as a payment option on their checkouts.
The buyer selects the BNPL payment option on checkout
The Buyer signs an online agreement with the BNPL provider, typically a quick questionnaire and KYC (know your customer) process
Everything looks good and the transaction is confirmed within a few seconds
The BNPL provider pays the seller the full amount of the transaction and the order is completed.

The buyer now has to pay interest free installments to the BNPL provider, but the seller already received the full amount in their accounts.

Win-win indeed.

It's convenient, inexpensive financing

BNPL is a substitute for conventional credit cards, and approvals are done right there on the checkout page! The only requirement is that the buyer has a good credit record.

Customers without credit cards, ones that would normally not consider buying with their credit cards, or ones that prefers not to go into credit with large payments and incur the interest fees.

Also, BNPL solutions are generally free of fees and penalties for the consumer, but only for as long as the payments get paid on time.

It Reduces Cart Abandonment

BNPL has the potential to cut cart abandonment by up to 35 percent. This one ties in with the previous point - imagine all the potential buyers sitting on the fence because the price of the online course is a bit out of their comfort zone, now they have the means to go ahead with the purchase.

So who provides BNPL?

This depends on where the business is operating, but BNPL is a growing trend worldwide and new providers are constantly popping up around the world.

Here are a few of the big players:

Klarna

Klarna is considered the godfather of BNPL, they started with BNPL in Sweden and quickly expanded to the major economies around the world. They currently operate in 45 countries across Europe, North America, Australia.

PayPal

PayPal offers a "Buy in 4" product to their merchants in the US. You need to contact
PayPal to enable this feature for your account. Follow this link for more information.

Afterpay/Clearpay

Afterpay is an Australian company operating in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America. They allow customers to settle purchases in four interest-free installments. They are known as Clearpay in Europe, and they are now active in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain.

How can I offer BNPL payments to my customers?

If you’re in the e-learning space, the problem is that none of the platform supports BNPL as a payment option.

CheckoutJoy’s checkouts come with BNPL through Klarna and Stripe. If you have a Klarna account, you can simply connect your account and start selling, otherwise if you use Stripe then you can add any of the BNPL providers that Stripe supports.

Once activated, your BNPL options will be available to eligible customers on your CheckoutJoy checkout page.

Now you can sell your courses using BNPL options, and whichever platform you’re using (Kajabi, Thinkific, Teachable, Kartra), CheckoutJoy will automatically add your customer to your account and grant them the purchased products.