Afterpay starts cross-border payments

Buy now, pay later provider Afterpay is enabling shoppers to make cross-border payments through the service, following a successful trial.

The feature means that businesses that offer Afterpay at checkout will now be able to offer the payment method to customers in other countries where Afterpay is active.

The feature is initially limited to Australian and New Zealand businesses, where a combined 2.7 million people use Afterpay, but will eventually be extended to include businesses in the US and later the entire Afterpay network.

“We are confident that [this] will add value to our retail partners, and open up the opportunity for them to seek and delight new customers from different countries,” Afterpay chief executive Nick Molnar said.

“Customers will be able to pay directly in their currency and not be hit with any additional foreign exchange fees after the payment is processed.”

The payment provider also will remove the complexity of foreign exchange, through a proprietary global payments solution that allows funds to be settled in their country of origin.

Afterpay’s support for cross-border payments is expected to be a boon for online retailers looking to grow their sales outside of the domestic market.