Top Choices for BNPL Providers for Each Region

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) providers have boomed in the pandemic-driven eCommerce soar of the last two years.

According to the Harvard Business Review BNPLs increase average cart size and conversion chances. Furthermore, we like data-based statements, and the fact that BNPL transaction volume is projected to go from $120bn in 2021 to $576bn by 2026 (Statista) makes it a no-brainer for all merchants.

But how do you choose the best buy now, pay later provider? Like other payment processors, there are so many, and new ones are popping up every month.

To make it easy for you, we will give a rundown of the top BNPL providers, divided by region.

You can read our brief introduction on BNPLs or go straight to the juicy stuff 😎

Enjoy!

What Is Buy Now, Pay Later?

We won’t go deep down the rabbit hole on this one, as we have already covered the topic in a previous article, and there are a ton of amazing resources out there, like this by Nerdwallet or this on Investopedia.

In a nutshell, Buy Now, Pay Later providers allow customers to split their purchase in a series of (usually) interest-free installments.

The Benefits of BNPL for Merchants:

• More likely to sell higher-ticket items
• Higher conversion chance
• Less abandoned carts

The Benefits of BNPL for Consumers:

• Flexible and convenient
• Easier application and approval process
• Budgeting and cash flow management

The Top Buy Now Pay Later Companies Divided by Location

Below you will find the most common, best-performing BNPLs for each region (according to our data). A very important distinction needs to be made between processing location and merchant location. We considered processing location (in other words, the country of your client). If you wish to use a particular BNPL provider (or any other processor, more about that below) you must make sure it accepts merchants from your geography and industry.

Let’s get started!

Europe

In Europe payment operations and the diversification of payment methods are really gaining a lot of attention. Northern Europe especially loves Buy Now, Pay Later. In Sweden, Germany, and Norway BNPLs hold around or over 20% of the market share. All in all, around 10% of European shoppers use BNPL.

Top Choices for BNPLs for Europe

• Oney
• Klarna

Oceania

Now, when it comes to Australia and New Zealand, a merchant most definitely doesn’t lack BNPL options. Some of the biggest BNPL providers were founded in Australia and they have a whopping 11% market share in the region (per Statista).

Top Choices for BNPLs for Australia, New Zeland, and Oceania

• Humm
• LimePay
• Zip
• Afterpay

North America

While BNPLs in North America don’t have the same huge market share they enjoy in Oceania and some European countries, it has steadily grown by 100% YoY. With over 60 million users, it’s definitely worth offering the option.

Top Choices for BNPLs for North America and US

• Klarna
• Afterpay
• Zip

Asia

The BNPL game in Asia, especially in the SEA region, is moving fast. Excellent providers have quickly gained 3-4% of the market share.

Top Choices for BNPLs for Asia

• Atome
• Shopback (formerly Hoolah)

South America

Latin America is not big on BNPL. If you want to offer the option for your LATAM customers to pay with Buy Now, Pay Later, you can use services such as Splitit (more on that below), which allow you to accept transactions from anywhere in the world. Generally, South American customers prefer to pay using cash or bank transfer through processors such as Paysafe.

Africa

In Africa, like in Latin America, BNPL has not yet taken the market by storm. Things seem to be on the move and a good indicator is that Zip has acquired Payflex, hence backing the expansion of Buy Now, Pay Later in Africa.

Top Choices for BNPL for Africa

• Payflex

Worldwide

Splitit according to this post on their blog, “works across your entire online experience regardless of your home country and your customer’s home country.”

Although it is not exactly a BNPL (it is an Installments-as-a-Service product), it allows similar flexibility to the customer.

Top Choices for BNPL for Worldwide processing

• Splitit

How to Choose the Right BNPL for My Business?

Choosing the right Buy Now, Pay Later provider is like choosing any other payment method, there are both requirements that depend on your situation and nuanced factors that vary from case to case. As a rule of thumb, you need to do your research and make sure that the processor:

• Accepts merchants from your country/region
• Accepts merchants from your industry
• Can process transactions in the countries/regions you need

Other useful things to keep in mind are that:

• You can use tools like Statista, or search for articles online, to analyze the market share of individual BNPL players and pick the best for your needs. If you offer a BNPL that your customers already use, they will be more likely to convert.
• Usually, local payment methods—and BNPL are no exception—will have higher approval ratios. For example, trying to process GCC payments with an EU acquirer will yield poorer results than using a local GCC processor and will lead to more declines. This is why the best approach is to use different payment methods for different regions

Since the research for the perfect BNPL can take a long time, we developed a free online tool that will aid you in the process. Check it out here!

Also, learn more about PSPs in general by reading our article here.

Integrate Payment Gateways and BNPL Options With BridgerPay

In a nutshell, the BNPL landscape is varied and, in order for you to get the best possible results, you should ideally use multiple providers and tailor the payment experience to different locations.

Unfortunately, integrating with BNPL providers can take a lot of time, dev-resources, and money. At BridgerPay we developed a Lego-like platform that allows you to automate all payment flows and access 500+ codeless, ready-made, connections to payment providers, including BNPL.

What does that mean? With just one integration you can connect your website to all the payment methods you need to scale your business and reach customer cross-borders with ease.

Operate your online payments. Get in touch today, and let’s discuss how you can effortlessly take your payment processing to the next level 😎 Book a call.