Amazon adds new BNPL option to strengthen digital wallet

The news: Prime Visa and Amazon Visa cardholders can now use the card’s installments offering outside of Amazon’s website and mobile app, per PYMNTS.

• It’s rolling out through a partnership with Chase, the issuer behind both cards.
• Cardholders can split purchases of $50 or more across six or 12 months at 0% interest when they shop with Amazon Pay.

How we got here: Amazon is growing its buy now, pay later (BNPL) capabilities beyond its partnership with Affirm.

• Amazon’s exclusivity period with BNPL provider Affirm expired on January 31. While the relationship is still intact and growing, the end of exclusivity opens up Amazon to additional BNPL tie-ups, including card-linked options.
• Amazon partnered with Citi in April, letting customers access Citi Flex Pay in their Amazon Pay wallets to pay for purchases at Amazon and eligible online shopping sites.
• And then in June, it added Affirm’s BNPL product as a payment option for Amazon Pay.

Why this matters: Bringing their installments offerings to tens of thousands of new retailers can help both Chase and Amazon capture more volume.

• Total BNPL payment value will reach $71.93 billion in the US this year and will skyrocket to $124.82 billion by 2026, according to our forecasts.
• The average BNPL user in the US spends $876.47 on BNPL purchases.

It can also help boost Amazon Pay adoption, which is struggling to stay competitive against other “buy” buttons like PayPal or Shop Pay.

• Some retailers may be hesitant to adopt Amazon’s buy button because they want to prevent Amazon from gaining real estate on their checkout pages or access to their valuable merchant data.
• But expanded access to BNPL products can help attract more merchants that are looking to meet consumer payment preferences.
• Younger generations especially have come to expect BNPL at checkout: 27% of Gen Zers would opt not to make a purchase if BNPL was not an option at checkout, per a report from PYMNTS and Sezzle.

This article originally appeared in Insider Intelligence's Payments Innovation Briefing—a three-times-weekly recap of top stories reshaping the payments industry. Subscribe to have more hard-hitting takeaways delivered to your inbox daily.

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