In the battle of the “buy now, pay later” players, platforms such as Quadpay, Klarna and Afterpay are turning to events to not only showcase their services to shoppers, but also provide them with exclusive deals. Most recently, Quadpay held its inaugural “Quadpay Fest” sale, a four-day shopping experience that took place from April 29 through May 2, helping drive sales for its platform and partners alike.
Overall transaction volume on the Quadpay platform grew 20 percent during the sale, when compared to the same time frame over the past month. The company said net-new customers led the increased traffic to Quadpay’s brand partners during the event, which featured “hundreds” of deals, promotions and giveaways.
On average, 40 percent of purchases were made by first-time customers to Quadpay brand partners, rivaling new customer conversions from Black Friday, the company says.
Featured brands that participated in the event included apparel and footwear players including Fashion Nova, Famous Footwear, Zara, Fanatics, Nike and Victoria’s Secret. Mass merchants such as Walmart and Target participated as well. Sales throughout the event offered up to 70 percent off full prices, according to Quadpay.
Nearly 60 percent of purchases during Quadpay Fest were made using mobile devices via Quadpay’s “virtual card,” which enables “buy now, pay later” transactions in physical retail locations and in the Quadpay app where Visa is accepted. The virtual card offers a unique single-use credit card number that allows shoppers to transact on their main credit card account without using—or exposing—their main credit card account number.
Related Stories
During the sales event, consumers were also able to take advantage of Quadpay’s Chrome Extension, which enables shoppers to pay via Quadpay by clicking a “Pay with Quadpay” button, bypassing the traditional e-commerce checkout process. Categories that generated the most purchases during Quadpay Fest included fashion, beauty, technology, home, kids, groceries, food delivery, travel, footwear and jewelry.
Certain categories outperformed when it came down to customer acquisition. Of those that purchased electronics, 55 percent were new customers to using “buy now, pay later” solutions for electronics, according to the company’s daily Brand Tracker. Of those who shopped for food (groceries and on-demand food delivery apps), 33 percent were first-time customers.
“The results from Quadpay Fest exceeded our expectations and we are thrilled to support our merchant partners with added referrals and revenue as they continue to rebound from the pandemic,” said Brad Lindenberg, co-CEO of Quadpay, A Zip Company, in a statement. “This past year has accelerated ‘buy now, pay later’ adoption among consumers and continues to skyrocket. With Quadpay, we provide merchants the opportunity to offer customers a seamless ‘buy now, pay later’ experience, and Quadpay Fest was a great way to attract new customers, drive revenue and increase overall order value both online and in physical store locations.”
The sale came two months after one of the company’s largest competitors, Afterpay, held its fifth bi-annual “Afterpay Day” sale. Afterpay’s event, which brought in brick-and-mortar retailers to participate for the first time, drove a 40 percent increase in new active customers globally, generated nearly 6 million referrals to merchants from the Afterpay Shop Directory and saw an average increase in basket size of approximately 10 percent.
Sales from the global event increased 117 percent from the same period last year and were 36 percent higher than the August edition.
And Klarna, in partnership with Cosmopolitan Magazine, brought its “Hauliday by Cosmo x Klarna” to U.S. fashion shoppers on March 1-2. This was the second iteration of the event, also including livestream commerce experience provider ShopShops to host live events at the Macy’s Herald Square flagship in New York City.
Brands hosting sales during the event included Klarna investor Macy’s, H&M, Haus Laboratories, Calvin Klein, Rebecca Minkoff, Farfetch, Saks Off 5th, Express, Bluemercury, Foot Locker, Adidas and Gymshark.
However, Klarna has not revealed the results of the “Hauliday” event.
Quadpay is based in the U.S., but is owned by Australia’s Zip Co. Limited, which acquired the company in June last year in an effort to expand into the market. Overall, Zip Co, including Quadpay, recently topped more than 7.6 million downloads worldwide, nearly 50,000 merchant partners and 6.4 million customers globally.
For the third quarter, which ended March 31, Quadpay boosted year-over-year transaction volume 234 percent to $592 million and increased year-over-year revenue 188 percent to $42.3 million. Quadpay now has 3.8 million customers, an increase of 153 percent (674,000 new customers) over the past year.
Klarna teams up with ABG/SPARC
While Quadpay is looking to bring more consumers into the fold with its event, Klarna is doing the same by expanding its stable with some big retail names. The fintech giant is bringing its “Pay in 4” services to the brand portfolio of Authentic Brands Group (ABG) and SPARC Group.
Klarna is currently available online at brands such as Aéropostale, Nautica, Nine West and Brooks Brothers, with plans to roll out across other labels in ABG and SPARC’s portfolios in the coming months. ABG co-owns SPARC as part of a joint venture with Simon Property Group. The SPARC Group operates names including Aéropostale, soon-to-be-acquired Eddie Bauer, Brooks Brothers, Lucky Brand, Nautica and Forever 21.
ABG’s global portfolio of more than 30 brands spans the media, entertainment, luxury, fashion, street, wellness, home, active and outdoor lifestyle sectors. Barneys New York, Vince Camuto and Juicy Couture are included in the portfolio, sitting alongside iconic names such as Sports Illustrated, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, and Shaquille O’Neal. Overall, ABG brands are expected to generate more than $14 billion in annual retail sales.
“With a strategic emphasis on digital innovation and customer satisfaction, ABG continues to seek partnerships that power our e-commerce sites with the best possible shopping experience for our customers,” Adam Kronengold, chief digital officer of ABG, said in a statement. “Through this exclusive partnership with Klarna we are delivering on our commitment to strengthen ABG’s e-commerce platform, broaden our consumer audience base, and attract new shoppers to our brands.”
Mike Dupuis, chief digital officer, SPARC Group, said in a statement that the Klarna collaboration has already resulted in a significant uptick in average order value.