Are you looking to generate good revenues and expand your reach across various industries via a successful application? Then investing in buy now pay later app development and creating an app like Klarna can be your game-changing move!
One of the hottest trends that resonates with the recent advancements in the global business sector is the buy now, pay later app. Every industry, including travel and hospitality, entertainment, eCommerce, and even online delivery, is leveraging the concept of shop now and pay later.
As per trusted sources, the buy now pay later app development market will surpass US $326.26 billion by 2030. While customers benefit from its easy payment functionalities, businesses are mostly enticed by its higher returns, better brand recognition, and better profit-generating capabilities.
Additionally, the success of many such apps, including AfterPay, Klarna, Affirm, and ZipLook, lured organizations worldwide to invest in buy now, pay later app development. Amongst all those apps, Klarna has gained immense popularity in recent years.
So, if you want to create a buy now, pay later app like Klarna, this post is for you. Here, we will discuss the development steps, some essential features, and the technologies involved with the buy now pay later app development.
But before that, let’s understand the basics!
Table of Contents
What is a Buy Now Pay Later Application?
A pay-later purchase is like a credit card or a soft loan. A buy now, pay later app allows consumers to purchase and pay for items later, often without interest or fees. These apps typically work by splitting the purchase cost into equal installment payments that can be spread out over several weeks or months.
That type of payment method makes it convenient for consumers to pay for an item after purchasing online. It is simple to apply for and requires the customer to repay promptly.
Due to a sudden rise in online shopping, people have felt the need for interest-free financing options, and BNPL apps have become their top choice. In fact, many apps like Klarna offer similar functionality to their users.
However, Klarna offers many exciting functionalities, including but not limited to the following:
- Flexible and customizable payment options
- Transparency in cost and interest fee
- A streamlined checkout process that can be completed in seconds
- Better rewards and exclusive discounts
- Supports various currencies, making it accessible to a wide range of users
Customers enjoy many more perks like that, making Klarna the best BNPL app in the world. At present, Klarna has over 80 million users across 17 countries worldwide. That’s why companies seeking BNPL mobile app development prefer to develop an app like Klarna!
How Profitable is Buy Now Pay Later App Development?
So, by now, you might have solid reasons to create a buy now pay later app like Klarna. But, for those seeking extra reasons to invest in this exciting trend of the mobile app development market, here’s why investing in buy now pay later app development can be your best decision!
ResearchAndMarkets.com reports that the global BNPL market will grow from $9.2 billion in 2022 to $68.433 billion in 2030, at a CAGR of 28.47%.
As per a report by Statista, the option of buy now, pay later is exclusively used in Northwestern Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
However, the young crowd in North America is also leveraging BNPL apps like Klarna to pay for clothes and fashion accessories. Recent research also affirmed that Millennials and Gen X, for offline shopping, used apps like Klarna.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the adoption of BNPL apps as more consumers turned to online shopping during lockdowns and social distancing measures. However, these are not the only reasons you should invest in buy now, pay later app development!
Better Reach
The buy now pay later model has gained much popularity in recent years, especially among younger consumers looking for more flexible payment options. That means that the demand for these apps is likely to continue growing, which could make them a profitable investment. You can reach a wider audience and even introduce your other services/products more easily.
More Returns
As the popularity of buy now pay later apps increases, there is potential for high returns for investors. These apps typically charge fees or interest on their loans, which can generate significant revenue for the company.
Repeat Customers
Customers who use BNPL apps tend to repeat their purchases quickly. They can even repeat the shopping 20 times a year if given the perfect discounts and rewards. So, once you have users for your app, there is a high chance that they will stay and become valuable customers for your business.
High Conversion Rates
As per trusted sources, investing in BNPL app development can result in 20%-30% better revenues for the organizations. Hence, today, more and more companies are shifting towards developing an app like Klarna than offering credit cards.
Opportunity for Innovation
Many buy-now-pay-later apps are constantly innovating and improving their services to stay competitive. That means there is potential for significant growth and development within this industry, which could lead to new opportunities for you.
Overall, investing in a buy now pay later app development can be a smart move if you believe in the future growth and potential of the industry.
But how to begin BNPL app development from scratch? Are there any compliances to follow, and what about the resources required to create a buy now pay later app like Klarna? Here’s a step-by-step process to create a buy now pay later app like Klarna!
Features to Include in Your Custom Buy Now Pay Later App like Klarna
Features are the most critical aspect that can make or break your app. So, before beginning your BNPL app development, you must identify your target audience and their pain points. You must also analyze the market and your top competitors to choose the best features for your app.
As a leading app development company, we have listed the top features you should include in your buy now pay later app. You can explore more by connecting with us over a free consultation call.
Multi-Payment Gateway Integration
You must offer convenient and flexible payment options to your users, including credit cards, bank transfers, and digital wallets, making it easy for them to pay their bills. You can even offer soft loan options that users can repay in a few days or weeks or high-end loan options that could be repaid in more than one or two years.
Automated Payments
Your valuable users should have the option to set up automated payments so that they do not miss any payments and incur late fees. You can notify them through push notifications functionality about incoming deals, due payments, the number of installments left to pay by the users, etc.
Purchase Tracking
Data is everything you need to succeed in today’s competitive world. Hence, you must incorporate data analytics tools to track your user’s spending patterns. Furthermore, you should allow your users to track their purchases and see how much they have paid and still owe.
Interest Rates and Fees
The custom buy now pay later app should be transparent about interest rates and fees so that your users understand the total cost of their purchases. You can also give exciting rewards on bigger purchases and loyalty coupons beyond a certain expenditure. That will eventually help you lure more users and entice the existing ones.
Customizable Payment Plans
Each user of your app must be able to reschedule their payment options based on their purchasing patterns, the amount they have spent on a certain item, and their past transactions. You can even offer them customized plans to pay back monthly, quarterly, or annually.
Customer Support
These days, deploying AI-based chatbots for automating customer support operations is trending. Companies are using AI development services to deploy high-end chatbots in their mobile applications. Hence, you must also deploy a custom chatbot in your buy now pay later app like Klarna to enhance customer support, offer 24*7 real-time assistance, and enhance the CX of your app. Moreover, you can also use NLP and conversational AI services to enable your chatbot to mimic human-like behavior.
Security
Since the BNPL app like Klarna will hold much critical information of the users, including the user’s bank details, personal information, payment passwords, etc. Hence, you must deploy security models and other tools to safeguard that information from online thefts and fraud. Your custom BNPL app, like Klarna, should use secure encryption and authentication protocols to protect users’ personal and financial information.
Integration with eCommerce Stores
Your app, like Klarna, must be integrated with a wide range of retailers and online eCommerce stores so your users can purchase from their favorite stores using the app. You can even offer them smart recommendations based on the deals happening at certain stores so that they do not miss the offer and the chances of making payment from your app increase.
Easy Returns
You must offer instant returns to your customers when they have canceled their purchases or decided to pay in full rather than using your app for payments. As such, the credibility of your buy now pay later app will increase exponentially, and you will get a more valuable audience worldwide.
Online Approval
The most common disadvantage of using a traditional loan approach is that it requires a lot of paperwork and usually takes many days for approval. But that’s not the case with the shop now pay later concept. Hence, you must offer online documentation facilities to your users to allow them to submit their documents online and get instant payment approvals.
Tech Stack Involved with Buy Now Pay Later App Development
The advancements in digital transformation services have introduced many new technologies and development tools. Creating a buy now pay later app like Klarna requires you to adapt to various app development technologies, including Swift, Java, Flutter, Android Studio, and more. However, many other technologies and APIs are required to create a BNPL app like Klarna.
- Payment Gateway APIs: PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, etc., can be used to facilitate online payment options for users.
- Credit Check APIs: Services like Experian or Equifax could be used to verify and check the buyer’s credit score.
- Banking APIs: A banking API, such as Plaid, could link the user’s bank account to the app for funds transfer.
- Fraud Detection APIs: To ensure the app’s protection, fraud detection APIs like Sift or Simility could be incorporated.
- Identity Verification APIs: You can use providers like Jumio, Onfido, or Veriff for the identity verification of the users.
- Cloud Hosting: To store and manage user data and ensure high application scalability, cloud hosting services like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud are needed.
- Security Protocols: Security features like SSL encryption, two-factor authentication, and firewalls are necessary to protect user data.
- Machine Learning Algorithms: You can integrate smart ML algorithms for data analysis and to provide personalized credit offers.
- AI Chatbot Tools: To incorporate a custom chatbot in your buy now pay later app like Klarna, several AI tools are used, including PyTorch, TensorFlow, NLP models, etc.
You can connect with us to discover more amazing technologies that can build success for your BNPL app.
Getting Started with Buy Now Pay Later App Development – A Step-by-Step Process
So, we are at the most awaited section of our article – creating a BNPL app like Klarna. Let’s discover the process and the factors you need to address before the final launch!
Developing a buy now pay later app involves several steps, including designing the user interface, developing the backend infrastructure, integrating payment gateways, and ensuring security and compliance.
You must have a perfect knowledge of all the key technologies, tools, and even next-gen tech used to create a shop now pay later app. However, you can also do the same thing by hiring a professional team of app developers with experience creating such finance loan lending apps.
Now, whether you choose in-house app development, or hire a reliable mobile app development company, here are a few steps to develop a successful app.
Don’t want to scroll through the complete process? Don’t worry; we have got you covered. Click here to connect with our experts over a free consultation call and kickstart your project quickly!
Step 1: Research and Planning
The foremost step in creating a successful buy now pay later app like Klarna is understanding your target market, identifying trends, and analyzing your competitors. What do you want your app to accomplish?
Do you want to provide a new payment option for your customers, or do you want to differentiate yourself from competitors by offering a unique BNPL service?
Defining your objectives will help you determine the features and functionality you must include in your app.
For that, you can ask questions like:
- Who are my target audiences?
- How can they benefit from my BNPL app?
- What are other apps popular in the market?
- What do those apps have that I can include in my app?
- How can I market my app and generate revenues?
- Is there a suitable monetization model that I can choose to generate a passive income?
- What resources will I need to create a BNPL app like Klarna?
Answering questions like these will help you frame a successful app development strategy that leads to better brand value, user-centric app development, and happy customers!
Additionally, market research and competitor analysis are also essential to identify the unique features you can offer in the app. Based on this, you can easily create a plan that includes the app’s objectives, features, and target audience.
Step 2 Business and Digital Consulting
The next step to develop a buy now, pay later app like Klarna is to opt for business and digital consulting. There are many trends and tools that could be unknown to you, even if you are aware of the app development market. That’s because you are not a professional developer working day in and day out, creating similar apps for various businesses. There the concept of expert consultation comes into play!
Many leading companies worldwide offer digital consulting services to discover the true pain points of your business/customers, identify the latest trends happening in your domain, and offer you a perfect solution matching your requirements.
For instance, in your case, there are many other sectors apart from eCommerce where the concept of shop now, pay later is used. Moreover, using AI, data analytics, and predictive analytics services is also a new concept that can magnify your app’s success.
All such trends and technological advancements can only be uncovered via expert digital consulting. Hence, always seek professionals that understand your requirements and help you frame an effective roadmap for buy now pay later app development.
Step 3: Hiring an Expert App Development Company
That’s the most critical aspect of developing a pay-later app like Klarna, or we can say most of your app’s success depends on the choice of your app development partner. If you choose a reliable and experienced app development company, you need not worry about many things.
For instance, an expert app development company always offers a wide range of services under one roof. That means you get everything required in one place, from consultation and designing to development and testing, which saves time and money.
Furthermore, an experienced company always provides talented developers and testers with complete knowledge of various roadblocks during the development process. They are even aware of the most recent trends in your niche that can further help you build your app’s success.
Well, at least that’s what we offer at Matellio.
Hence, you must partner with a reputable app development company having expertise in developing pay later apps like Klarna. Explore our blog below for the top tips for choosing the best app development company!
Read More: 8 Tips for Choosing the Best Mobile App Development Company
Step 4: App Designing and MVP Development
Once you have the ideas, and a team of professional app developers, the next big step is to design your app like Klarna. That’s where the concept of MVP development comes into play!
MVP development services can help you build a minimum viable product that can be tested and validated by your target market. An MVP is a scaled-down version of your app that includes only the essential features and functionality. It allows you to get feedback from your users and make improvements before investing in a fully developed app.
You can check the navigation of your app and its user interface. Even if you want to alter anything, you can do it as the project is not developing. Hence, that eventually reduces your development and testing time since you verify everything during the design stage.
Step 5: Developing Your Buy Now Pay Later App like Klarna
In the next step, you can start the development process. Develop the backend infrastructure that supports the app’s features, such as payment gateways, customer account management, and transaction history. The app should be built for scalability to accommodate a growing user base.
Furthermore, you must integrate the app with one or more payment gateways that allow users to pay for their purchases in installments. This integration should be secure and compliant with regulations.
Step 6: Security and Compliance
In today’s digital era, cybersecurity has been the topmost concern of businesses, and the BNPL sector is no exception. As your buy now pay later app like Klarna holds critical information about your customers, it should be secured and follow all the regulations.
Hence, your development partner must ensure the app is secure and compliant with regulations, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Step 7: Testing and Deployment
Finally, you need to test your app for any glitches and errors. Testing is important as it detects even the minutest unidentified mistakes during development. However, many organizations often skip that step to save costs and get more time to market their product.
As such, they face many technical and performance issues that eventually affect their brand. We are sure you do not want that for your buy now pay later app like Klarna! Hence, always opt for testing services for your app.
You can choose from manual or automated testing as per your project requirements. Post-testing, you can deploy your app on a specific platform.
Read More: Automated vs. Manual Mobile App Testing: Do You Need Both?
Step 8: Maintenance
Maintenance is a crucial step that can help you maintain the success of your app for years to come. You can stay ahead of the latest advancements in the niche with proper maintenance and support services. That way, you get more users and better ratings worldwide.
Maintenance and support services typically include UI/UX enhancement, testing, features upgrade, technology migration, cloud integration, and more. Hence, you must choose a partner that offers such services for your app.
How Can Matellio Help You Build a Buy Now Pay Later App like Klarna?
Are you looking to build a buy now pay later app like Klarna? Do you want to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience while increasing revenue? Look no further than Matellio!
We are a software engineering studio with extensive experience developing e-commerce apps, including buy now pay later apps like Klarna. With a team of skilled developers and designers, we can help you create an app that is user-friendly, secure, and customizable to your specific needs.
Here are a few perks that you can enjoy by partnering with us for your buy now pay later app development:
Free Competitor Analysis and Market Research
As a leading software engineering studio, we believe in transforming businesses by understanding their needs and offering accurate digital solutions. Hence, you get free competitor analysis and market research services for your buy now pay later app like Klarna. You can discover various trends, features, and technologies to build success for your project.
Customized Solutions
Our team will work with you to understand your business needs and develop a customized solution that meets those needs. We will tailor the app to your specific requirements, including the features and functionalities you want to offer your customers.
Quality UI/UX Services
We will ensure that your app has a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, allowing your customers to quickly and easily make purchases and payments.
Secure Transactions
We understand the importance of secure transactions, particularly when it comes to financial transactions. That’s why we will ensure that your app has robust security measures to protect your customers’ sensitive data.
Integration with Payment Gateways
We can integrate your app with various payment gateways, making it easy for your customers to pay for their purchases using their preferred payment method.
Next-gen Tech Integration
Whether AI, IoT, data analytics, or even cloud services, we have experts who can easily integrate any next-gen technology in your pay-later app, like Klarna, to boost your app’s performance and take your business towards innovation and profitability.
Support and Maintenance
We offer ongoing support and maintenance to ensure your app runs smoothly and is up-to-date with the latest security measures and features. You can access services, including UI/UX enhancement, legacy app modernization, testing, and even technology and platform migration via our maintenance services.
All in all, if you want to build a buy now pay later app like Klarna, we can provide you with a comprehensive solution tailored to your specific needs. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you achieve your business goals.
Conclusion
Buy now pay later (BNPL) apps have been gaining popularity over the past few years. This trend has been fueled by the growing demand for online shopping and the desire for more flexible payment options. Developing a BNPL app can be a lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurs and startups. But it is important to carefully consider the market dynamics and competitive landscape before investing significant resources in app development.
It is also important to ensure that the app complies with relevant regulations and consumer protection laws, which can vary by country and jurisdiction. You must have software development, payment systems, and security expertise to develop an app like Klarna.
But if you don’t have the necessary expertise, hiring a professional development team to help you build and maintain the app may be worth hiring. Hence, partner with us to develop an app like Klarna and skyrocket your business revenues and brand value. Connect with our experts today over a free 30-minute consultation call!
