Trade Me partners with Afterpay to offer ‘buy now, pay later' service

Trade Me is teaming up with Afterpay, an Australian 'buy now, pay later' online payments provider to allow sellers to offer interest-free deferred payments to buyers.

Trade Me head of marketplace Stuart McLean says they were stoked to be able to offer an easy and flexible payment option to both its buyers and sellers.

"Afterpay lets buyers get the item in their hands straight away but pay it off in four fortnightly instalments."

For example, if you buy something on Trade Me for $100 using Afterpay, instead of stumping up the full amount immediately you'll pay it via four $25 fortnightly payments.

"Sellers receive their money straight away from Afterpay and can ship the goods straight away - the buyer then makes their payments to Afterpay," he says.

McLean says adding more payment options on Trade Me would help sellers, and increase the purchasing power of buyers.

"Afterpay is all about giving our buyers more flexibility to buy what they want. It's perfect if they want to spread out their shopping to minimise the pain on their wallet.

"It's free for buyers to use: just click 'buy with Afterpay', enter a few details and you're good to go.

McLean says that the service will appeal to Trade Me sellers.

"Many of their merchants in Australia have reported their customers are buying more, and they're gaining customers who might have otherwise clicked away.

"We're aiming to have a significant number of listings with Afterpay available as a payment option when we launch later this year," he adds.

"Offering the service on listings is totally optional and there is a small fee to sellers, but from what we've seen in Australia it helps drive sales by giving buyers a convenient and flexible way to pay.

McLean says Trade Me chose to work with Afterpay because they're the best possible buy now, pay later service going around.

"They have a proven ability to scale, experience and they provide an awesome customer service. They fit with our aim of making it as easy as possible to buy and sell on Trade Me.

Afterpay will be available on Trade Me later this year.

"For now, we'll be working with our sellers to show them how it works and getting it up and running on their listings.

"We're also making sure Afterpay and Trade Me are integrated to ensure there's a seamless user experience. This all takes a little bit of time but we can't wait to get started.