Planet Blue, a women’s contemporary apparel retailer, will now let shoppers use the Klarna Pay in 4 installment payment service in its stores. This makes Planet Blue one of the first U.S. retail chains to offer the service at physical locations after offering it exclusively online.
Pay in 4 lets shoppers choose to pay for their purchase with four equal payments, collected bi-weekly, with no interest or fees. The solution is designed to reduce friction at checkout and widen the array of payment options offered at Planet Blue.
“We’re finding that many of our customers want flexibility in their payment options,” said Eddie Bromberg, CEO of Planet Blue in a statement. “After offering Klarna’s Pay in 4 service on our web site, it made sense to extend the option to our brick and mortar shoppers as well.”
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Flexible payments are particularly attractive to younger consumers, who want to avoid debt and appreciate multiple payment options. These customers like the availability of installment payment offerings even if they don’t necessarily need to use them.
“[Millennials] have shown that they will be flexible and embrace these alternative payment situations to get the things that they want,” said Tim Barlow, Senior Principal Analyst at Gartner L2 in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “I think that this particular selection of buy now, pay later installment offerings and layaways just give consumers more flexibility and opportunity. For Millennials in particular, it’s not a bad thing. Maybe they won’t always choose that option. Maybe they won’t ever choose that option. But to make it available to them is only a good thing and not something they’ll ever turn their noses up at.”
