Despite COVID-19 having challenged the retail industry, consumers have substituted trips to the mall with online purchases in droves as evidenced by Zip Co’s (ASX: Z1P) results though May with the BNPL provider reporting a 78% increase in YoY monthly revenues to $15.6m.

Beyond the significant increase in their online payment volumes, transaction volumes were up 63% on May 2019 to $189.3m suggesting Zip to be largely unaffected by the pandemic. 

“We are continuing to witness the shift away from cash to digital, contactless payments and ecommerce,” said Zip Managing Director and CEO, Larry Diamond. 

“We also anticipate ecommerce penetration to remain at elevated levels post COVID-19 as consumers gain familiarity shopping online, and retailers invest significantly in this space. 

“Pleasingly, over the last couple of weeks, there has been improvements in consumer confidence as well as signs of recovery of in store foot traffic.” 

On the opposite side of the ledger, merchants are rapidly adapting to these rising demand of consumers who are electing to purchase goods online with Zip’s merchant numbers swelling to 23.6k around the world, a 46% increase May 2019. 

With a sizable network of merchants and growing adaption from consumers for their by-now-pay-later services, Zip recently acquired leading US-based BNPL provider QuadPay in June as part of their strategy to accelerate global growth. To fund the acquisition, QuadPay will be issued a 23.3% equity stake in Zip. Alongside the acquisition, Zip further raised $200 million via a convertible note issue to U.S-based Susquehanna International Group to fund growth strategies. 

For the quarter ending 31 March 2020, QuadPay reported annualised revenue of $70m from $900 million annualised total transaction volumes.

Emerald Financial recently released Analyst commentary into the BNPL and cash alternatives sector.
The report can be accessed here.