Interview with Antonio Lafiosca, Co-Founder & COO at Opyn
What is the need from which Opyn Pay Later was born and who is it aimed at?
Opyn Pay Later is a type of short-term interest-free financing dedicated to the B2B market. The service allows, on the one hand, sellers to offer an additional credit service to the customer, and on the other hand, buyers to pay only part of the order at the time of purchase and to defer the rest of the amount in installments. We have found that the main need in the market is for more flexibility and simplicity in payment methods: well, with Opyn Pay Later it is possible and this makes the B2B world more inclusive and on par with the B2C world, always one step ahead on these issues. In particular, from the surveys we have carried out, it appears that the merchant’s need is to meet the customer’s availability without compromising its stability. Thanks to Opyn Pay Later, the seller gets 2/3 of the amount immediately, thus reducing the risk that any delays in payment will affect its liquidity. The buyer, on the other hand, has more time to pay, thus facilitating cash flow management, as well as the ability to up-sell and cross-sell product.
Why is it something new within the buy now pay later market?
Opyn Pay Later is the first Italian “Buy Now, Pay Later” service dedicated to the B2B market. Indeed, while the B2C sector is already well developed and known, the B2B sector has yet to emerge. Yet, according to a study by Hokodo, this segment is worth 2.5 times that dedicated to consumers. For this reason, we wanted to take up the challenge of devising and proposing a solution that could meet all the needs the business-to-business market requires.
Another innovation brought by Opyn Pay Later is that it can be used for both digital purchases (both remote and e-commerce) and physical in-store purchases through the “Pay by link” system for purchases up to 3K euros.
How do you expect the “Buy now, pay later” market to evolve on a European and international level?
The service is already active for the Italian market, but our goal is to reach Europe as well, during 2023.
We have to consider that the “Buy Now, Pay Later” market, according to Straits Research forecasts, will be worth more than $3.6 trillion by 2030 (with a 45% growth from 2022). Only in Italy, the sector will come to be worth 14.5 billion euros in 2025 (with an increase of 10.9% since 2021 – data from the B2C eCommerce Observatory of Politecnico di Milano). A market which, also internationally, is driven by the old continent: 8 of the 10 top players are located in Northwestern Europe, particularly Sweden and Germany. So we are talking about a sector expected to grow strongly in the coming years and in which we want to enter with a solution that differentiates itself from competitors.