Paysafe brings installment payments to North America's heated e-commerce market

Paysafe Group will launch an in-store and online installment payment service to serve a growing appetite it sees in the U.S. and Canada.

U.K.-based Paysafe and other companies like it view the ability to integrate installment payment options in merchant networks as a way to help e-commerce merchants compete with the likes of Amazon and other heavyweights. As Amazon flexes its retail muscle with its annual Prime Day, its expansion of the cashierless Amazon Go stores and its takeover of Whole Foods, many retailers feel pressured to update their payment options to stay competitive.

Paysafe Pay Later will launch alongside a "try before they buy" option for online shoppers. Merchants can currently register for the service ahead of its August debut. The initial launch will give merchants the option to add installment payments capability to their point-of-sale networks, while those in Canada can also use the invoice product that allows shoppers to receive goods prior to payment.

MARTINA SIEBENHANDL

The PaySafe Pay Later option has been in place in Europe for six years, providing a tablet-based application for in-store or online transactions. Customers can choose the installment plan and its various options at the time of checkout.

Worldpay, recently acquired by Vantiv, offers a similar service in regions of Europe after teaming up with Klarna to provide installment payments for merchant clients. In the same vein, Splitit partnered with Magento last year to establish a monthly credit payment option at checkout for e-commerce merchants.

Mastercard and Verifone have also partnered in the past two years to allow installment payments for Mastercard cardholders in the U.K.

"There are other financing options out there, but what sets Paysafe apart is that we provide a full suite of payment options, including Paysafe Pay Later," said Claire Gates, CEO of Pay Later Solutions, part of Paysafe Group. "We've always been very strong at understanding and catering to specific industries, meeting the needs of sectors that are boxed in by cookie-cutter payment solutions."

Paysafe says two of every three customers are likely to consider the installment payment option for a wide range of products — healthcare, home services, large-ticket items, vacations, jewelry, and holiday gifts — according to its own research.

At the same time the company plans to launch the Pay Later service in the U.S., it will launch its same-day settlement to small business merchants in the U.S. through a partnership with Ingo Money's push payments solution.

Last month, Paysafe revealed that Paysafecash, a service that allows users to upload funds to digital wallets to make online purchases with cash, was active in 14 countries currently and the company was planning expansion into 32 other markets, including the U.S. by the end of the year.

Users choosing the Paysafecash option on an e-commerce website can pay exact amounts for their purchases, instead of rounding the amount to a fixed voucher denomination, which Paysafe said has typically been the only way online retailers will offer a cash option.

Paysafe Pay Later represents a value-added feature in the Paysafe Group portfolio, with its own division within the company. Paysafe Pay Later operates through sales and technology teams in Vienna, London and North America.