Afterpay will be rolled out to Square’s bricks and mortar customers.Credit:Will Willitts
Under the changes,Block’s payment business Square - which is behind the small,white plastic square-shaped payment readers popular with small and micro businesses - will allow its merchant customers to accept in-store Afterpay payments,if they wish. Square began offering Afterpay to itsecommerce customers in February.
The move is aimed at spreading Afterpay - which initially emerged in online shopping - further among Square’s millions of merchant customers globally,many of whom are small business operators.
Afterpay has enjoyed rapid growth among millennial and younger customers by providing digital interest-free instalment loans,which consumers repay over four fortnightly instalments.
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Block,led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey,bought Afterpay for $39 billion in stock last year,in a record-breaking deal that also resulted in Block shares being dual-listed on the ASX. But with the share prices ofloss-making BNPL operators crumbling since then,investors want to see a pay-off from the massive takeover.
Head of Square,Alyssa Henry,said people would probably not use Afterpay for very small expenses,but the move could mean the BNPL service was used to finance a wider range of purchases,such as $100 hair cuts.
“You’re probably not going to buy a $3 coffee[with Afterpay],but many restaurants have catering orders,or butcher shops … so there’s a bunch of places where food and drink does come into play,as well as,like,a $100 hair cut,” Henry said.