Square launches its first integration with Clearpay in the UK today offering ‘‘Buy Now, Pay Later’’ (BNPL) functionality to merchants across in-person and online market. This symbolizes another key milestone in the global integration of Clearpay (known as Afterpay outside the UK and Europe). Subsequently, the acquisition of Afterpay by Block, as the UK will be the first market to launch BNPL obtainable across all platforms, comprising online and in-store, that can be integrated by Square’s partners and developers.
Jane Lyon, Founder of Lornahouse Lifestyle said since the opening of their website in the pandemic and incorporating Clearpay into their payment systems, the business is very delighted to be informed on Square’s direct integration with Clearpay into its network. Lyon added that the team is gratified with Square since leaving their previous legacy terminals and commerce solutions behind. The business’s website demonstrated that many clienteles like the experience of disseminating payments, so it is boundless that business proprietors can extend this solution and meet their customer requirements while having all the tools they need in a specific location.
Global integration
The integration would facilitate Square merchants in the UK to offer a BNPL solution that allows customers to pay in four interest-free instalments over a six-week period while merchants get paid instantaneously.
- For online purchasing, Clearpay will now be embedded as a payment option within Square Online’s checkout system, giving sellers the opportunity to improve their average purchase size, increase basket conversion and attract more consumers
- Merchants would be able to accept Clearpay in-person at the buyer checkout stage through any square point of sale software – Square Appointments, Square Point of Sale, Square for Restaurants and Square for Retail
- Developers can merge transaction data, build, and maintain a single integration for Square and Clearpay payments with a few lines of code within the Square Web Payments SDK.
- Merchants who accept payments by Square’s Virtual Terminal dashboard can offer Clearpay through using Square Terminal hardware or text message Pay Links.
The BNPL model is the UK’s fastest growing online payment method reporting for GBP 13 billion of UK e-commerce expenditure during the previous year. It is projected to double in value by 2025 to account for 12.1 percent (GBP 32 billion) of UK e-commerce expenditure. Universally, BNPL is projected to generate USD 680 billion in transaction volume worldwide in 2025.
A combined Square and Clearpay has already proven to attract new shoppers and drive incremental revenue for sellers of all sizes, since integration has taken place across Australia and the U.S, merchants using Square Online are considering the following impact on their businesses:
- Rapid growth in consumers: Worldwide, both companies have observed a 180 per cent increase in new customers leveraging Afterpay through Square sellers between February and March 2022.
- Meaningful growth among key merchant categories: In the U.S., retail businesses that presented Afterpay as a payments option on their website are considering a meaningful lift in overall online sales:
- In both countries, beauty and personal care businesses witnessed significant quantum leaps in online sales, recording a 26 per cent upsurge in Australia and a 16 per cent growth in the U.S.
- with men’s and women’s clothing stores growing 17 per cent
- specialised apparel and accessories, 15 per cent
- pet stores, 13 per cent
- sporting goods stores, 12 per cent
- jewellery and watch shops, 10 per cent
- Transaction sizes are higher: In the U.S. and Australia, the average transaction size with Afterpay is 3x bigger than non-BNPL purchases.
About Square
Square aids merchants operate and expand their businesses more effortlessly with its integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions. The company offers purpose-built software to track complex retail restaurant, versatile e-commerce tools, professional services operations, embedded financial services, buy now, pay later functionality through Afterpay/Clearpay, staff management and payroll capabilities, and much more. All of which work together to conserve merchants time and effort. Millions of merchants across the globe trust the company to power their business and help them thrive in the economy. The company is part of Block, Inc., a global technology company with a focus on financial services.
About Clearpay
Clearpay, also known as Afterpay, in the UK and Europe, is transforming the way the customers pay by allowing them to buy products immediately and pay for their purchases over four instalments. The service is completely free for customers who pay on time – assisting people pay responsibly by repaying over four instalments without incurring interest.
Afterpay is recommended by more than 144,000 of the world’s favourite retailers and over twenty million active customers have embraced the service as of March 31, 2022.Afterpay is presently available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy and Spain and the United Kingdom, where it is known as Clearpay. Afterpay is on a mission to power an economy in which the entire world prevails. Afterpay is an owned subsidiary of Block, Inc.