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Buy now, pay later specialist Sezzle Inc. is ready to be known for more than its installment payment service, hoping to capitalize on its Earn features. Meanwhile, BNPL provider Klarna AB says Ulta Beauty now offers its payment option to U.S. consumers.
A year old, Earn, displayed as a tab in the Sezzle app, lets consumers find and claim rewards and cash-back offers on purchases like fuel, groceries, and dining. Minneapolis-based Sezzle says the goal was to give consumers a reason to return to the app between purchases and hopefully make it a daily habit. Since then, users have tapped the Earn tab 5 million times.
Now, bolstered by Earn’s use and growth, Sezzle is evolving its services. “Consumers are opening our app to earn cashback on gas and groceries, not just to split a payment. This is an early sign the ‘super app’ strategy was working. Everything we’re rolling out now, points, trivia, card-linked cashback, Pay-in-5, grew out of that signal,” Sarah Hill, Sezzle senior vice president of product, says in a statement.
The evolution includes Pay-in-5, a five-time installment option. Sezzle says in April average order values on Pay-in-5 transactions were 44% higher than its Pay-in-4 product. It also is adding a rewards program, Sezzle Points, and expanding its cash back network. Sezzle Points enables users to earn rewards from cash back, surveys, receipts, and other actions and redeem them for gift cards from retailers.
Sezzle has added non-payment services, too. In February it launched Sezzle Mobile, a mobile phone plan operating on the AT&T network.
In related news, Klarna says U.S. shoppers visiting Ulta.com or using the retailer’s app can now select Klarna as a BNPL option. Bolingbrook, Ill.-based Ulta also offers Afterpay, the BNPL service owned by Block Inc., an option it added in 2019.
