Businesses Are Missing An Opportunity with In-House Financing

The benefits of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) are clear to most business owners. And yet the vast majority don’t offer financing – missing a significant opportunity to increase sales and improve customer retention.

A study conducted by Afterpay and PYMNTS.com found a significant imbalance between customers’ desire for BNPL and businesses that offer this payment option. Before we get into the numbers, it’s worth noting: “The absence of BNPL cuts across industry verticals. More than half of the firms operate, cumulatively, in retail and construction.”

That said, for a vast majority of businesses surveyed, where a majority of them have top lines between $250,000 to $2.5 million, more than 95 percent do not offer BNPL options.

And, yet…

• Nearly 61 percent of survey respondents said they agree or strongly agree that BNPL allows for sales that might not otherwise occur
  
  
• 61 percent said that consumers will be willing to switch to companies that offer BNPL
  
  
• 57.2 percent agree or strongly agree that an increasing percentage of sales will take place via BNPL

In other words, the majority of business owners recognize the value of offering financing to increase sales and retain customers – but they don’t offer financing themselves.

One explanation for the discrepancy is the perception of BNPL. PYMNTS.com reports that about 58 percent of firms agree or strongly agree that BNPL attracts customers with “bad debt reputations.”

Of course, as a business owner you want to minimize your risk and, in this case, the risk of a customer defaulting on a loan. There are two very important factors to keep in mind here. The first is that the risk you assume when offering in-house financing can be significantly reduced based on the small business lender you partner with. The right financing partner virtually eliminates your risk. Second, the process of approving applicants and collecting payments falls to the financing provider. You get paid in full at the time of purchase. So, if a customer does default, the problem is the lender’s, not yours.

The misperception that financing is difficult may also be keeping companies from realizing its benefits. But getting started is easy. More than half of the businesses surveyed by PYMNTS.com sell online through their own websites. The “infrastructure” you need to offer financing (think applications and quote generators) can be white-labeled and integrated right into your website. Customers complete all the paperwork online.

There’s no doubt that financing options like BNPL are here to stay, making this an ideal time to embrace in-house financing and get an advantage over your competitors. We’d love to show you the way. Learn about partnering with Triton Capital.