Instant Credit's Next Magic Trick

“Buy now, pay later” started as a credit card killer, but what if it’s really an end run around the Facebook ad-industrial complex?

- By Ainsley Harris

The fashion retailer Express, a mall-culture staple, is on a mission to transform itself for the digital era. It manages a flock of social-selling influencers and is using data to personalize the experience of browsing its hot-pink crop tops and sequined statement blazers. The finishing touch on this brand makeover? A partnership with buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Klarna to co-brand digital ads and offer Klarna’s “Pay in 4” product—which splits shopping-spree expenditures into four interest-free biweekly payments—at checkout. “We want to give customers with a certain perception of us an opportunity to change that perception,” says Brian Seewald, Express’s SVP of e-commerce. “We’re taking the risk out of a purchase with BNPL,” adding that Express customers who opt to use Klarna have a higher average order value.