Afterpay Launches Livestream Shopping Platform

Need to Know

• Afterpay and social commerce company MagicLinks will launch a live shopping experience on Afterpay’s website later this month.
• Afterpay’s 13 million customers will be able to shop live for sustainable brands and pay using the BNPL company’s interest-free installment payments program.
• The company is targeting Millennial and Gen Z shoppers with the new tool.

Analysis

As buy now, pay later financing and social shopping continue to spike in popularity, Afterpay is planning to combine both, announcing plans to integrate livestream shopping experiences onto its website later this month.

Afterpay announced its plans for the new shopping experience as part of a series of new sustainability-focused tools and features the BNPL company plans to roll out for Earth Month. The livestream shopping experiences will be presented with MagicLinks. Afterpay’s livestreamed shopping experiences will allow the company’s 13 million customers to shop live for eco-friendly brands from influencers, and pay for items they wish to buy using four interest-free installments.

Melissa Davis, head of North America at Afterpay, said that the company is targeting Millennials and Gen Z shoppers with the livestream shopping experiences, since those demographics have shown a clear interest in purchasing items they believe to be sustainable and eco-friendly.

“We are thrilled to offer our customers the option to shop from fashion-forward brands in a responsible and sustainable way, while also giving back to these incredibly important organizations,” Davis said. “Gen Z and Millennials are conscious shoppers who make mindful choices when they shop and we are proud to put the spotlight on organizations that are helping to tackle the complex issues facing our planet.”

MagicLinks, Afterpay’s partner in the integration, empowers influencers to sell products and earn income across any social platform. The company, which specializes in video commerce, counts Everlane, Glossier, Lululemon and Urban Outfitters among its brand partners, and has reached more than 1.5 billion shoppers, amassing $500 million in sales since its 2015 launch.

Afterpay is not the first BNPL company to experiment with social selling. In July of last year, Klarna and Cosmopolitan partnered for “Hauliday by Cosmo x Klarna”, a virtual shopping event featuring apparel, footwear, and beauty items from brands such as Adidas, Sephora, H&M, and others in Klarna’s network of more than 4,200 retail partners. Klarna and Cosmopolitan launched a second Hauliday event in March, which introduced livestream shopping. Like the Afterpay-MagicLinks event, customers shopping the Hauliday experiences were offered the option to make purchases using Klarna’s BNPL tech.

Afterpay has been working to expand beyond its origins as a BNPL service provider. The company’s Shop Directory platform in particular, which lists retailers where Afterpay is available, has proven valuable in moving Afterpay from mere checkout tool to recommendation engine. On average, 72% of retailers see bigger cart sizes from customers who use the Shop Directory; in November 2020, Afterpay’s retail partners saw 35 million referral clicks from Shop Directory. The company also recently expanded its in-store payment options to the entire US, and launched shopping malls owned by Simon—the largest mall operator in the US—in October, just ahead of the holiday shopping season.