Bill Me Later’s Growth Plans Don’t Stop at Amazon Acceptance

Bill Me Later Inc., the online alternative financing system, is now live on the Amazon.com site. Announced last week, that development is no surprise as Amazon back in December said it had invested in Bill Me Later and would offer the payment service to its customers (Digital Transactions News, Dec. 11, 2007). But Amazon acceptance does cement Bill Me Later's position as one of the leading alternative-payment brands online?a position Bill Me Later executives plan to enhance. “It's just another great validation of what we're doing here at Bill Me Later,” Mark Lavelle, vice president of corporate development, tells Digital Transactions News. “We've got over 4 million customers who can shop all of Amazon's products and services.” Besides Seattle-based Amazon's own Amazon Payments, Bill Me Later is the only alternative to the major-brand payment card networks accepted on the nation's biggest online retailer as ranked by Internet Retailer magazine. Bill Me Later's standard pricing for large merchants is 1.5% plus 15 cents, but the parties would not confirm what Amazon pays. Lavelle also wouldn't disclose the size of Amazon's stake in Bill Me Later, but says it is a minority interest. With Amazon up and running, Timonium, Md.-based Bill Me Later is turning its attention to other retail and travel-and-entertainment e-commerce merchants. More than 900 merchants accept Bill Me Later, up from approximately 700 late last year. Besides Amazon, prominent retail acceptors include 1-800-Flowers, Ace Hardware, Toshiba, Toys “R” Us, and Walmart.com. Retailers that will be adding Bill Me Later acceptance soon include SpeedoUSA, Ulta Beauty, and Calvin Klein Underwear. The “Don't see your favorite retailer?” section of Bill Me Later's Web site enlists customers to help expand the merchant base. The section provides phone numbers and online links to non-accepting retailers, enabling motivated users to easily ask those merchants to start taking Bill Me Later. In T&E, Bill Me Later airline acceptors include Continental Airlines, JetBlue Airways, US Airways, and AirTran Airways. More airlines may be added. “We have interest from a number of them and it's under evaluation,” Lavelle says. The aggregator travel sites Hotwire.com and Hotels.com also take Bill Me Later, and Lavelle adds that “we've been in discussions with a number of those aggregators.” Bill Me Later also is exploring acceptance at physical points of sale, but Lavelle is guarded about detailing the extent of that effort. “We are looking at pilots” this year, he says. Bill Me Later and its merchant partners run numerous financing promotions such as no payments for 90 days. Salt Lake City, Utah-based CIT Bank provides the credit for purchases financed through Bill Me Later.