Sberbank has launched a new BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) service “Pay in installments”.

Sberbank voiced interest in the service in late 2021, and the launch was announced at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Kommersant reports.

BNPL will be available for purchases from 1,000 to 30,000 rubles. When buying through the service, the payment is divided into four equal parts, the first part is debited immediately, the remaining payments are made every 2 weeks. The service is available not only for the clients of Sberbank, but also for absolutely all customers who want to use it.

According to experts’ forecasts, by 2028 the volume of the global BNPL services market will grow at an average annual rate of 22.4%, said Kirill Tsarev, First Deputy Chairman of the Sberbank Management Board.

Paying for purchases in parts is beneficial not only for buyers, but also for online stores themselves. It allows you to increase the average check, increase sales and the number of new loyal customers.

According to data of McKinsey & Company for the end of 2021, BNPL accounted for 2% of the global consumer credit market. It is still difficult to estimate the volume of the Russian segment.

Experts admit that Sberbank can become a central player in the BNPL market, however, the success of the project will depend on the macroeconomic situation and the regulatory environment.

At the same time, experts warn that sometimes BNPL can be risky in terms of deferred payments. In the POS (point-of-sale) loans market, which are closest to this segment, the level of overdue debt varies from 10% to 20%. Thus, the BNPL default rates can reach about 25%.

According to data of Infoline-Analytics, the results for the first quarter of 2022 indicate that Russian e-commerce market has grown by 65% against the rush demand for some goods in February-March, thus exceeding 1.2 trillion rubles.

The economic crisis, the decline in household incomes and consumer lending have already led to a reduction in sales of most product categories in physical terms from the second quarter of 2022. However, despite the local deterioration in the dynamics in the second quarter, there is a potential for an increase in online shopping for tangible goods in 2022 by 1.5 times, to more than 6 trillion rubles.

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