Buy Now Pay Later Application Development
A Comprehensive Guide
ScienceSoft relies on 33 years in IT and 15 years in creating financial solutions to help companies design and develop robust Buy Now Pay Later applications.
Buy Now Pay Later Application: The Essence
A Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) application allows shoppers to make instant online and in-person purchases and pay them off in installments, often interest-free. The solution provides consumers with a convenient and cost-effective way to afford the products and services they need.
As Buy Now Pay Later becomes an increasingly popular payment option globally, such apps have the potential to generate significant revenue for BNPL service providers and drive higher order value and frequency for merchants.
- Ways to provide customers with access to BNPL services: introducing a standalone BNPL app with built-in shopping capabilities, BNPL integration as one of the payment methods in merchants’ selling platforms.
- Steps to launch a BNPL application: application conceptualization, project planning, application design, tech stack selection, development, integration, quality assurance, deployment, release, support and evolution (optional).
- Necessary integrations: a merchant’s selling platform, payment gateways, a credit rating platform, accounting software of a BNPL service provider.
- Timelines: 6–11 months on average.
- Cost: $120K–$400K+, depending on the solution’s complexity.
Essential Integrations for a Buy Now Pay Later App
ScienceSoft recommends that a BNPL application should integrate with the following systems to streamline payments on the loan and ensure a seamless flow of purchasing and payment data:
- A merchant’s selling platform (a merchant’s website, an ecommerce marketplace, POS software, etc.) – to instantly process loan requests and communicate the decision on loan approval to customers; (for in-app shopping) to ensure the accuracy of introduced information on merchants’ products and services and promptly inform merchants about the purchases made via a BNPL app.
- Payment gateways provided by banks or independent payment services providers (e.g., PayPal, Stripe) – to enable real-time processing of payments sent by customers, merchants, and a BNPL service provider; to keep app users up to date on the status of their payments.
- Credit rating platforms of the selected credit rating bureaus (e.g., Experian, Equifax) – for facilitated customer credit rating checks and credit report submission.
- Accounting software of a BNPL service provider – to automatically record data on upfront payments to merchants, due and received loan repayments from customers, and payments from merchants for BNPL services in the general ledger.
Convenient UX and user-friendly UI
To drive high app adoption among customers and merchants.
Single-use virtual cards
To let customers use a BNPL service when paying for purchases in a physical store.
Support for multiple installment plans and repayment methods
To allow customers to choose preferred financing and repayment options.
Advanced analytics
To help merchants precisely identify BNPL-related customer purchasing patterns and enable data-driven planning of segmented ads and discounts.
Robust security
To guarantee the protection of payment plan software and sensitive data it stores from fraudulent and malicious activities.
Easy-to-use APIs
To ensure fast and smooth app integration with required systems and eliminate double data entry.
BNPL app development for BNPL service providers
The BNPL market is expected to show more than x20 growth for the next decade. Don’t miss the best time to launch your own BNPL application to maximize your market share and enjoy high and prompt ROI.
BNPL integration in the online store for merchants
Drive 45% higher purchase frequency, achieve a 40%+ increase in AOV and up to 30% growth in conversion. Just let your customers get the products and services they need right now while reducing their financial burden.
$20K–$100K
Integrating a market-available BNPL solution into the merchant’s selling platform.
$120K–$180K
Developing a mobile BNPL app of average complexity.
$400K+
Building a comprehensive web-based Buy Now Pay Later platform.
The cost, duration, and approach to BNPL implementation depends on the following factors:
For BNPL app development
- The number and complexity of a BNPL app’s features.
- The platform to base the app on (web, mobile, or both).
- (for mobile installment apps) Supported mobile platforms (iOS, Android).
- Performance, scalability, availability, and security requirements for the app.
- Role-specific requirements for the UX and UI.
- The number and complexity of integrations.
For BNPL integration in the online store
- The chosen approach to the BNPL integration.
- The number and specifics of solutions to be integrated and the number of integration points.
- Performance, availability, scalability, security requirements for the integrated system.
- The required modifications of the integrated solutions.
About ScienceSoft
ScienceSoft is an international IT consulting and software development company headquartered in McKinney, Texas. We provide end-to-end application development services to help companies design and build reliable and secure Buy Now Pay Later apps. In our projects, we employ robust quality and data security management systems backed by ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications.