Multi-country retail finance: A new era for the market

An industry left untouched for decades, checkout finance is now the fastest growing payment method worldwide, with a global market projected to be worth $90.51 billion by 2029, up from $22.86 billion in 2022. That’s a compound annual growth rate of 21.7% (for comparison, the credit card industry anticipates a CAGR of 8.7% in the same period). 

And it’s easy to see why. Checkout finance boosts average order values, basket conversions and customer loyalty for merchants; lenders see improvements in their customer engagement, get access to a new pool of customers, and enhance their lending portfolio; and consumers get fast, flexible, and often free access to credit. It’s a win-win-win.

As of 2022, there are around 150 different solution providers globally. Our research suggests about three-quarters of large retailers in the UK have at least one form of checkout finance (BNPL or retail finance), and one in four offer multiple solutions. As a result, around two-thirds of consumers have used checkout finance in the UK.

But despite its successes, there is still work to be done from a product perspective.

The issues with multi-country retail finance

Merchants looking to offer retail finance in multiple countries face major challenges. There are currently very few lenders that offer finance in the UK and the rest of Europe, and vice versa. Each market requires a new lender, which often means a new technology provider.

That means due diligence. There are plugins to consider and bespoke integrations to figure out. There are commercial contracts to negotiate and timelines to establish. There’s also the cost of onboarding a solution. Not just the set-up fee or the staff costs, but the time and energy it takes to onboard every additional provider. You’ve then got to train your staff on the platform, teach them how to sell it, and market your finance programme.

This is not a simple process. A bespoke integration takes months if things go smoothly. A bump in the road can delay your launch to a year or more. And it’s only afterwards that the real work begins.

Managing, maintaining and improving the backend of your finance program is labour and time intensive. Merchant technical teams are often small and overworked. A different solution for every market adds to that workload, which means more staff are needed to keep things ticking over.

It’s a real challenge for large merchants we’re talking to, and it makes offering retail finance in multiple countries a difficult thing to do.

Divido Connect makes multi-country finance easy

That’s why we’ve launched a new multi-country retail finance product: Divido Connect. Divido Connect simplifies this process by enabling merchants to offer retail finance in the UK and across Europe via a single integration. Our network of Tier One lenders provide reputable finance in markets they’re experts in. 

We make it easier for you to embed finance payment options at points of sale. You save months of engineering work and can enter new countries, including Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Romania and the UK faster. Maintaining your solution is made simple with automation tools and the Divido Merchant Portal.

If you’d like to learn more about our multi-country retail finance solution, get in touch for a demo today.

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Become an expert in checkout finance

Our latest research uncovers the shopping habits of 4,000 consumers across Europe’s biggest markets. Learn how shoppers in France, Spain, Italy and Germany use checkout finance, where they spend their money, and how likely they are to use it again.