In its annual report on payments in Australia, the country’s central bank noted a significant shift in payments toward online and mobile transactions. While the value of online transactions in Australia rose to 15 percent of total retail sales during Covid-19 lockdowns, they had fallen back to about 10 percent by June 2022—but still well ahead of the seven percent reached in 2019 before the pandemic. And, as in other international markets, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has seen major advances in popularity as an online payment method.
According to the RBA’s Payment System Board Annual Report for 2022, the value of BNPL transactions made by Australian consumers increased by more than a third (37 percent) to $16 billion by June 2022—about two percent of the total card spend in the country. The number of active Australian BNPL customer accounts also increased, from 5 million to around 7 million accounts during that time.
“Over the past year, a number of new providers entered the Australian BNPL market, and some larger existing payment providers have introduced BNPL options to their existing payment services," the report's authors wrote. "The range of merchants accepting BNPL transactions has also increased, including as a result of some BNPL providers leveraging existing card acceptance arrangements to enable BNPL purchases at almost any merchant that accepts card payments.”
To read a copy of the full report, click here.
