Square Launches Buy Now, Pay Later in Canada Through Afterpay

Square launches its first integration with Afterpay in Canada, providing “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) functionality to sellers using Square’s eCommerce products across the country.

The integration will enable Square sellers in Canada to offer Afterpay’s BNPL experience to their customers, helping them attract new shoppers and drive incremental revenue.

“From our earliest days, Square has focused on building flexible omnichannel commerce solutions to empower entrepreneurs and the launch of Afterpay in Canada – one of our largest international markets – is one more step in that direction,” said Alyssa Henry, Head of Square.

“The integration with Afterpay helps us further our priority of global expansion while bringing even more businesses of all sizes into the Square ecosystem.”

With the accelerated shift to eCommerce during the pandemic, buy now, pay later has already taken off in Canada.

BNPL payments are projected to grow 63.5 percent and reach $5.9 billion in Canada in 2022, according to data analytics company Research and Markets.

Canadian Gen Z and Millennials aged 18-44 use BNPL the most of any other consumer segments, according to a recent pilot study by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.

Since integration has taken place across the US and Australia, a combined Square and Afterpay has already proven to attract new shoppers and drive incremental revenue for sellers of all sizes.

Sellers using Square Online are seeing the following impact on their businesses:

• Transaction sizes are up: Across both the US and Australia, the average transaction size with Afterpay is 3x greater than non-BNPL purchases.
• Rapid growth in buyers: Globally, we observed a 180 percent increase in new consumers leveraging Afterpay through Square sellers between February and March 2022.
• Meaningful growth among key merchant categories: In the US, retail businesses that offered Afterpay as a payments option on their website are seeing a meaningful lift in overall online sales, with men’s and women’s clothing stores growing 17 percent; specialized apparel and accessories, 15 percent; pet stores, 13 percent; sporting goods stores, 12 percent; and jewelry and watch shops, 10 percent. In both countries, beauty and personal care businesses saw significant upticks in online sales, registering a 26 percent increase in Australia and a 16 percent increase in the US.

“In a short amount of time together, Square and Afterpay have already proven to attract new shoppers and drive significant incremental revenue for businesses,” said Nick Molnar, Afterpay co-founder and Afterpay lead at Square.

“From large, well-established enterprises, to smaller companies just getting started and everyone else in between, we look forward to giving Canadian sellers the tools to attract young, engaged shoppers who prefer to use Afterpay to shop flexibly for their everyday essentials.”

Square Afterpay Integration Now Available to Eligible Sellers in Canada

Afterpay is available today to eligible sellers in Canada using Square Online store and Square Online Checkout links for e-commerce, who can try Afterpay for no extra cost until December 31.

Sellers can access Afterpay from Account & Settings on their Square Dashboard and opt-in to receive early access to Afterpay now, with automatic enablement rolling out to eligible Square eCommerce sellers over the following weeks.

Afterpay can be easily toggled on or off via sellers’ Account & Settings on their Square Dashboard at any time.

During the promotional period, Afterpay transactions are processed at sellers’ standard eCommerce processing rates.

Square sellers receive their full earnings from each sale immediately (minus associated transaction fees and applicable taxes), while consumers pay over four installments.