• Driven heavily by the pandemic, the rise in Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services looks set to continue in future. 
• So much so that Game recently partnered with JustPayNow to offer the capabilities to its shoppers ahead of Black Friday later this month.
• BNPL will be available at all 108 Game stores starting next week.

With the cost of living rising across the board, and only set to worsen in the coming months and years, financial services like Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) have surged of late.

The functionality has proved particularly popular in regions like South Africa, which is why local retailer Game has announced that it will be offering BNPL starting next week via JustPayNow.

The offering also arrives in time for Black Friday, with Game planning a large event for later this month. To that end, in-store BNPL purchases will be available at all 108 of the retailer’s local stores starting from 14th November.

With PayJustNow seeing a 260 percent increase in the number of transactions and 137 000 new customers in the first six months of 2022, it is clear that BNPL options will remain popular for quite some time.

“In a tough economic environment, shoppers are looking for the right products at the right prices – but more than that, they’re also looking for great experiences that make it as easy as possible for them to complete their purchases,” noted Andrew Stein, VP of Game in a press release sent to Hypertext.

“While we’ve seen the impact of BNPL on ecommerce, the fact is that most purchases still take place in-store, and it makes sense to offer our customers the widest array of payment options,” he added.

According to Craig Newborn, CEO of PayJustNow, consumers are between 20 to 30 percent more likely to complete a purchase when a retailer offers BNPL as a payment method, whether online or in-store.

“Consumers are looking for easy payment options that give them flexibility. We’ve seen 52% of all transacting customers across our retailer base sign up before making a purchase at a retailer, which means we’re driving consumer buying power and helping retailers acquire new customers. But the real winners are the retailers, who are seeing significantly increased conversions and customer loyalty,” Newborn continued.

Game will likely be hoping for similar numbers now that BNPL services have been added in-store. That said, it will be interesting to see just how much money is spent during this month’s Black Friday, given that many are bracing for tougher economic times ahead.