By Ezra Luca
Transactions on PayPal’s Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform multiplied 5-fold on Black Friday compared to 2020, as the payment enabler begins to gain headway in the rapidly-growing credit offering, its CEO announced at the Reuters Next summit.
In August of 2020, PayPal introduced its “Buy in 4” service, marking its foray into the highly competitive lending space.
“This past Black Friday, we witnessed a 400 percent YOY increase in our volumes passing via BNPL, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman stated. “Right now, the platform is getting more popular.” He went on to say that over 9 million individuals have used Buy Now Pay Later.
Black Friday is an informal shopping holiday that occurs in late November— the day following the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.
“For the first time, our platform received over a million 1st-time users in November,” he added. “It isn’t just widespread, but it’s getting more popular.”
BNPL services have surged with the COVID explosion in e-commerce volumes. However, authorities have expressed worry that they would lead to increased borrowing, particularly in younger shoppers.
According to a September poll, one-third of US shoppers who’ve used BNPL programs delayed on one or more installments. Still, Schulman maintains that the size of PayPal’s client base allows them to offer Buy Now Pay Later responsibly.
“Our platform has almost 400 million users. We understand buyers and retailers, and can tell a creditworthy borrower” said Schulman.
“PayPal has the industry’s best approval rates and perhaps the lowest number of defaulters.”
Schulman refused to speak on PayPal’s focus on Pinterest following rumours in Nov. 2020 that the firm was planning to take over the social networking platform in a $45 billion deal—-to become one of the biggest technology mergers in history.
However, he stated that the corporation was open to both large and small agreements because it has $20 billion in money assets on its balance sheet.
Acquisitions of interest would be in sectors concerning the connectivity of payments, shopping capabilities and consumer financial services, explained Schulman.
Author Bio
Payment industry guru Taylor Cole is a passionate payments expert who understands the complex world of evo payments UK. He also writes non-fiction, on subjects ranging from personal finance to stocks to cryptopay. He enjoys eating pie with ice cream on his backyard porch, as should all right-thinking people.
