Affirm shares jumped 40% in the after-hours session Friday after the fintech company said it has partnered with Amazon to allow a pay-over-time option at Amazon’s checkout. Select Amazon customers will have the option to split the total cost of purchases of $50 or more, and Amazon plans to make Affirm available to more customers in the coming months. Amazon “is always looking to add flexible payment options, and Affirm does just that” with no late or hidden fees. Buy Now, Pay Later companies such as Affirm allow consumers to buy in installments and charge them either simple interest or no interest at all and with instant access to what they bought. [MarketWatch]
PayPal’s About to Take on Robinhood
PayPal is taking its first steps toward developing and registering an investment platform within PayPal called Invest at PayPal, and it could launch next year. Rival Square added stock trading, including fractional share trading, to its app in 2019, taking on the popular brokerage app Robinhood. Now, PayPal is ready to follow in Square’s footsteps again. PayPal has the advantage of serving over 400 million active accounts, most of which have linked their bank account information to the platform already. By comparison, Robinhood reports having just 21 million active accounts, and Cash App has about 40 million users. That makes PayPal a significant threat to Robinhood as the former is also looking to attract first-time investors. [Nasdaq]
Buy Now, Pay Later Consumer Financing Takes on Credit Cards
Buy now, pay later is gaining steam. BNPL is a way to spread out interest-free payments for consumers, who can also avoid late fees if they pay on time. They also can sidestep credit card balances that accrue with interest until the cardholder pays them off. Two recent events give validity to views that it’s a long-term trend, not a flash-in-the-pan amid the coronavirus pandemic. Digital payment company Square on Aug. 1 agreed to purchase BNPL provider Afterpay in an all-stock, $29 billion deal. Then Amazon announced Aug. 27 that it’s working with Affirm, sending its shares soaring. Amazon said it’s testing Affirm’s BNPL plans on orders of $50 or more. The e-commerce giant plans to make BNPL more broadly available in the coming months. All these players have an eye toward younger consumers. [Investor’s Business Daily]
