Apple set to take on Afterpay with its own buy now, pay later product
rom Affirm and PayPal.

July 14, 2021 — 9.13am

By Mark Gurman and Sridhar Natarajan

Apple is working on a new service that will let consumers pay for any Apple Pay purchase in instalments over time, rivalling the “buy now, pay later” offerings popularised by services from Affirm and PayPal.

The upcoming service, known internally as Apple Pay Later, will use Goldman Sachs as the lender for the loans needed for the instalment offerings, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Goldman Sachs has been Apple’s partner for the Apple Card credit card since 2019, but the new offering isn’t tied to the Apple Card and doesn’t require the use of one, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing unannounced products.

The upcoming service, known internally as Apple Pay Later, will use Goldman Sachs as the lender for the loans needed for the installment offerings, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The upcoming service, known internally as Apple Pay Later, will use Goldman Sachs as the lender for the loans needed for the installment offerings, according to people with knowledge of the matter.AP

The buy now, pay later system could help drive Apple Pay adoption and convince more users to use their iPhone to pay for items instead of standard credit cards. Apple receives a percentage of transactions made with Apple Pay, driving additional revenue to the company’s more than $US50 billion ($67.2 billion) per year services business.

The service is currently planned to work as follows: When a user makes a purchase via Apple Pay on their Apple device, they will have the option to pay for it either across four interest-free payments made every two weeks, or across several months with interest, one of the people said. The plan with four payments is called “Apple Pay in 4” internally, while the longer-term payment plans are dubbed “Apple Pay Monthly Instalments.”

When making purchases through an Apple Pay Later plan, users will be able to choose any credit card to make their payments over time. The service is planned to be available for purchases made at either retail or online stores. Apple already offers monthly instalments via the Apple Card for purchases of its own products, but this service would expand that technology to any Apple Pay transaction.

The interest rates that Apple plans to charge for the monthly instalments couldn’t be learned. Affirm charges as much as 30 per cent APR, while other rivals charge less. The interest-free four instalment plans would rival similar systems like ones from Afterpay Klarna Bank and Sezzle in addition to PayPal’s popular Pay in 4 service.

Affirm fell as much as 13 per cent on the news, while PayPal declined about 1.4 per cent.

Users who want to use the Apple Pay Later service will need to be approved via an application submitted through the iPhone’s Wallet app, where they will also be able to manage their payments. Users will need to submit a copy of their local ID card to apply for the program. Apple will also offer customers the ability to exit payment plans to pay off the remainder of their purchase balance.

At least some of the Apple Pay Later plans will also exclude late fees and processing fees, only costing users interest for longer-term plans. The service will also not require running a credit check on the user. Separately, the company is also testing a feature that will let users create temporary, digital Apple Pay Later credit cards for individual purchases.

Apple’s new service is still in development and its features could change or be cancelled, the people said. Spokespeople for Apple and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

Related Article

Morgan Stanley last week predicted Afterpay Money could be used to refer customers for mortgages, and to offer cryptocurrency or share trading.

On an earnings call earlier on Tuesday, Goldman chief financial officer Stephen Scherr said he believes there are “more opportunities to be had with Apple.” Goldman’s alliance with consumer darlings like Apple is aimed at helping it find a footing in the world of consumer banking – an expansion it has sought in recent years to spread its reach beyond the world of high finance on Wall Street.

Apple’s iPhone-based payment service is accepted at 85 per cent of all US retailers, according to the company. The new service would mark one of the largest additions to the service since its launch in 2014, following other features like peer-to-peer payments. Apple last year acquired a company that developed technology to allow phones to receive payments by tapping another phone or credit card on its back, adding another potential feature to the Apple payments road map.

Bloomberg

Amazon Omni-Channel opens a can of Bricks and Mortar

When Amazon launched in the late 1990s, I was finishing off my Undergraduate degree and distinctly remember sitting back from the desk and pondering how Amazon would change the world of commerce.

Amazons’ latest announcement has been a while coming, its now out there.  The link below gives you a nice tight overview of one of the newest initiatives by Amazon, the physical retail store without a “normal” checkout. The call it Amazon Go.

Basically, a consumer “logs” into the store via a turnstile-type arrangement. (Think HK Oyster rather than Melbourne MYKI at this point!) The person then picks up items from the physical shelf and the Amazon system adds that item to the consumers shopping cart. On store exit, the basket of goods are paid for via the Amazon online checkout system. Seamless, easy and scary if you are an Australian retailer without an omni-channel plan. (If you have e-commerce and don’t have buy-online-pickup instore then Click and Collect is one of your first defensive moves. See last paragraph for your next action on this point)

Amazon Go Video

This 1:49 video shows the Amazon Go user experience.

This is the link to the article on Wired Magazine. http://www.wired.co.uk/article/amazon-go-walk-out-shopping

Omni-Channel Retailing

Remembering that Amazons Revenue is now north of U$107bn, it would seem as though they have got a few things right in the past.

Omni-channel is about a friction-less buying experience and it applies to B2B in addition to B2C, the traditional e-commerce focus for Amazon and Australian organisations.

If your business has e-commerce up and running and now needs Click and Collect then lets have a confidential conversation on how to approach Buy Online and Pickup Instore.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ewanwalsh

Pinterest adds Buy Now Button

Pinterest adds Buy Now Button – Blue “buy it” buttons will start appearing next to “buyable” buttons to allow users to transact. According to Business Insider, the mobile experience has been a major focus given that Pinterest has experienced 85% of intent to purchase (without the buy button) as being initiated from a mobile device. Significant.

BTW the mobile split was 68% plus for vehicle finance applications in a previous personal project so those in denial of mobile devices accelerating importance take note!

Back to Pinterest. Payment methods will start with Apple Pay and credit card. Apple Pay is a payment method classified as a payment processor. Payment processors such as Apple Pay and Paypal hold ones credit card details and don’t ever share those details with retailers. This means that for a transaction via Apple Pay, that there is one less person or entity in the world that has access to ones actual credit card number.

Shopify will be one of the first supported e-commerce platforms. According to Pinterest, Pinterest is the second largest referrer of traffic to Shopify stores. Pinterest won’t take a cut of the sale so retailers will get their usual margins. I would expect that this is only phase one of Pinterests pricing strategy to lure as many retailers into the Pinterest/Shopify network. Release date for this functionality is late June 2015. Apple platform first, followed by Android. First market off the rank will be USA. So AU start your and engines and prep by opening a “Pinterest for business account” but don’t drop the clutch just yet!

DHL to deliver parcels to your unattended car

Get a parcel delivered to your car boot. Safe, secure and yours.

“In May 2015 DHL Parcel, Amazon and Audi will team up to launch a Germany-wide pilot project for a brand new service that will allow car owners to use their cars as mobile delivery addresses for their parcel shipments. The three project partners have developed and tested their unique solution for car trunk delivery the past several months to ensure high security standards for both merchandise and automobiles. For the customer, the service is designed to be simple, transparent and easily manageable at all stages of the process – from order placement on Amazon.de, parcel transport by DHL, to delivery to the trunk of their Audi. ”

Press Release from DHL here.