Clearpay, a leader in “Buy Now, Pay Later” payments known as Afterpay outside of the UK, has announced new partnerships with top fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands for 2021, offering consumers more places to shop for the latest trends whilst effectively managing their finances and never being charged interest.
New brands, offered exclusively through Clearpay, include premium fashion and lifestyle favourites RIXO, Goop and FaceGym – each offering “Buy Now, Pay Later” in the UK for the first time. Other new merchants include The Fragrance Shop, Lounge Underwear, FOREO, Revolution Beauty and MandM.
Clearpay offers shoppers access to the latest products, as well as the ability to spread costs across four instalments, kicking off the new year with financial wellness in mind. Clearpay is also proud to partner with thousands of UK SMB brands for 2021 following feedback from 61% of Clearpay users, who stated shopping local is important to them this year.
In addition to this, Clearpay has released its full consumer shopping trends for the Peak 2020 Holiday shopping season (1st October – End of December). According to the data, consumers also expanded their gift giving lists and shopped for more items from a greater selection of retailers compared to last year.
Clearpay’s brand partners also benefited from the uptick, with a 460% increase in the number of Shop Directory referrals sent to global merchants, up from 2019 . The data also shows that customers continued to shop on the go with 92% of UK customers using mobile devices for their purchases during the time period, a 1% increase from 2019. Additionally, Clearpay saw a +47% YoY increase in new U.K. customers from 2019 to 2020 during the peak trading season.
Clearpay shopping data from the Peak 2020 Holiday season also found that consumers continued to embrace self care from the inside out with casual-fashion items, athleisure, and wellness products topping their lists. Favourites included pieces from JD Sports, Marks & Spencer, as well as Exante.
Jewellery topped the charts with new Clearpay merchant, Pandora, having a number of items in the top 20 most purchased items list.
There was an uptick in beauty purchases including hair care products, lipstick, and fragrance, indicating shoppers were still looking to adopt a more ‘dressed up’ approach during the 2020 Christmas period.
Creating a comfortable WFH environment remained front of mind as UK shoppers consistently purchased comfortable slippers and luxury bath products, whilst premium homewares such as candles and luxury towels also topped consumers’ shopping lists.
Carl Scheible, UK CEO of Clearpay says: “It’s been a challenging year in the UK and around the globe. Despite the hurdles we all faced, Clearpay is proud to support our diverse group of merchants to ensure they had a seamless and successful peak season. In particular, we know how much our customers love to support local businesses, so we are thrilled to offer them flexible payments with local UK merchants.”
Today, more than one million UK customers use Clearpay at more than 1,900 top retailers after just one year since launching in the market.