Buy now pay later provider Laybuy has joined Zip Co in giving its customers a facility to use their BNPL accounts while making contactless payments on merchant terminals, claiming a significant enhancement in the level of service and ease of use.
Laybuy has started rolling out a digital BNPL Mastercard for in-store payments.
Laybuy chief executive Gary Rohloff said in a statement: “Customers simply need to load the card into their smartphone wallet. They can then use it to buy goods and services with Laybuy in the same way they would if they were making a contactless payment with a physical card.”
He said the new service would make it easier for retailers to introduce BNPL and speed up transactions.
Last month, Zip announced that it had been granted a principal issuer licence with Visa, which will allow users of Zip’s buy now pay later service to make contactless payments on merchant terminals.
Currently, Zip in-store payments are based on barcode and QR code technology, which requires “complex point of sale integration”, the company said in a statement.
Zip said 24 per cent of its transactions occur in physical stores, compared with the broad Australian retail market where 87 per cent of payments are in stores.
“The opportunity to grow the BNPL share is significant,” said Zip chief executive Larry Diamond.