BNPL For Merchants Through Embedded Finance — The Next Opportunity

A new Buy Now, Pay Later variant, Merchant BNPL is making its way into mainstream credit for small businesses when they buy from suppliers

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BUY Now, Pay Later (BNPL) in the consumer world has been witnessing excitement and acceptance from customers and investors. Globally, fintech companies such as Affirm, Klarna, AfterPay have seen high valuations and customer inflow.

However, there is a new BNPL variant making waves now, Merchant BNPL, which is making its way into mainstream credit for small businesses when they buy from suppliers. Business owners want the same seamless real-time credit experience they get as consumers.

The business to business (B2B) space in India is rapidly evolving. Data from Forrester Research shows India’s retail market was worth an estimated $883 billion last year, of which grocery retail accounted for $608 billion. By 2024, the market is expected to grow to $1.3 trillion. Notably, about 75 per cent of this retail market is dominated by mom-and-pop stores that sell everything from groceries to apparel to electronics to daily needs goods.

Emerging Trends

To set the wheels in perfect motion for Merchant BNPL, here are a few of the megatrends that are coming into play.

Small business owners are going paperless. They are managing sourcing, logistics, finances digitally and are finding it easier and efficient. Pandemic has accelerated this trend exponentially.