UK shoppers to get ‘buy now, pay later’ at Westfield malls

Bloomberg

Clearpay Finance Ltd is partnering with mall landlord Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield in the UK, continuing the buy-now-pay-later provider’s expansion into brick and mortar retail globally.
Customers at 13 stores in Westfield’s pair of giant London shopping centers will be given the option to pay in installments through Clearpay, which is known as Afterpay outside Europe. It adds to Clearpay’s UK partnerships with National Express and London Fashion Week, as well as an existing tie-up with Westfield in the US.
Clearpay, whose Australian parent firm was acquired by Block Inc for $29 billion in January, is working with Westfield to give customers more options in-store as the retail industry recovers from the pandemic, co-founder Anthony Eisen said in an interview with Bloomberg.
“We are fully committed to the UK market and looking to grow the team,” Eisen said. Clearpay already has 2.5 million active customers in the country and Eisen said buy-now-pay-later could soon account for 10% of e-commerce spending.
The firm has responded to a UK consultation on regulating buy-now-pay-later loans, with the results expected this spring. New spending platforms including Klarna and Affirm have grown rapidly, fuelled by younger customers who are spreading the cost of purchases while spurning credit cards. They aren’t covered by existing rules governing other short-term debt such as payday loans.
Buy-now-pay-later differs from credit cards by covering typically smaller purchases and quicker repayments, Eisen said. “We recognise millennials and Gen Z don’t want to sit in a world of revolving debt,” he said.