Unzer Launches New “Upaylater” Product

Berlin, March 23, 2023

• Unzer launches new "upaylater" buy now, pay later product.
• Unzer is integrating invoice and instalment payment options, as well as direct debit into its product portfolio via a single interface.
• All payment steps are configured according to the merchant's wishes and brand guidelines.

Unzer, a company offering payment and commerce solutions, today launched its new buy now, pay later (BNPL) product. Under the name "upaylater", Unzer is integrating invoice and instalment payment methods, as well as direct debit into its product portfolio via a single interface. This makes it even easier for merchants to meet customers' growing demand for BNPL services. In the future, Unzer looks forward to expanding its market share in BNPL services. 

Unzer follows a white-label approach – i.e., has no visible presence in the checkout process, allowing the respective shop to handle all payment steps based on its own branding and style needs. This strengthens the trust and loyalty of the end customer to the retailer and leads to a lower abandonment rate. All payment steps are handled in the brand presence and environment of the respective shop, and merchants can design the checkout according to their wishes and in their own design. 

Unzer is not new to invoices, instalments, or guaranteed direct debit, having offered all three payment methods in their basic forms for over ten years. However, the company has now combined the knowledge, data and technology together into a new offering. This goes hand in hand with a simplified technical integration: merchants can choose from a range of international as well as country-specific payment methods and effortlessly add them to their shops.

In addition, Unzer has added instalments and invoices to its available point-of-sale payment methods, enabling retailers to offer consistent shopping experiences both online and offline (“unified commerce”). Each transaction runs via a platform that synchronises sales, product and customer data seamlessly and in real-time – no matter where and how their customers pay or receive the goods. This simplifies business processes, reduces technical complexity and saves time and costs. 

A responsible risk assessment protects consumers from over-indebtedness. Based on various parameters such as date of birth and address, Unzer checks the identity and creditworthiness of customers for even the smallest purchases in real time and prevents fraud. Powerful risk assessment software analyses a variety of factors in a fraction of a second. Anyone who has missed payments, has outstanding invoices or exceeds a certain amount of receivables must pay for a purchase in full before they can use further BNPL services. In this way, both merchants and customers benefit from Unzer’s access to a wide range of payment options.  

Robert Bueninck, CEO at Unzer, explains: “Unlike most of our competitors, Unzer does not target end customers. The entire customer relationship remains with the retailer. This also means that we don't use customers' data to offer them other products. Unzer wants to be a pioneer in the field of responsible invoice and instalment purchases. That's why we anticipate potential regulation when we design our products.” 

Unzer is not new to invoices, instalments, or direct debit. However, for our new "upaylater" offering, we have combined our knowledge, data and technology. This makes it even easier for merchants to offer BNPL services.

Robert Bueninck, CEO Unzer

Buy now, pay later options come with advantages for both sides. Customers can view the goods at their leisure and make their own decision on when to pay. Moreover, white-label BNPL services require neither a customer account nor an additional app.  

Retailers, in turn, benefit from fuller shopping baskets, fewer abandoned purchases and a digital payment process that, in the case of instalment purchases, comes with a significantly faster application process than a classic consumer loan. With just a few clicks, the purchase is completed, and each instalment is collected automatically while the merchant receives the full sale price immediately. 

Unzer is committed to simplify commerce by combining technology, data and payments to help merchants start, run, and grow their businesses. In autumn 2022, the company presented its mobile device, POS Go, and unified commerce platform, UnzerOne. The platform not only merges payment transactions at the point of sale with online payment transactions, but also enables all systems to communicate with each other in real time. This way, businesses have one single source of truth for their product, inventory, order and customer data across all touchpoints, while customers benefit from a consistent and seamless shopping experience. 

About Unzer

Unzer provides payment and commerce solutions to European merchants. With Unzer's unified commerce platform, businesses can view, monitor and act on customer, sales and product data in one place and in real-time. This helps merchants better understand their customers' needs, while all transactions and inventory changes are tracked and updated in the cloud. Customers benefit from the most relevant, consistent and timely experience possible, and are able to choose how, where and when they would like to pay.   

More than 70,000 merchants from all over Europe are already using financial services provided by Unzer. The company's employees work in eight offices across Germany, Austria, Denmark and Luxembourg. Global investment firm KKR holds a majority stake in Unzer.