Retail finance specialist sees 123% increase in demand for credit from retailers

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Retail finance specialist Pay4Later, which has a panel of lenders that retailers' can use to offer customers credit, reveals the amount of money lent through its platform between December 2014 and February 2015 was 123% higher than the same period 12 months earlier.

Over 70,000 point of sale credit applications went through Pay4Later between December and February. The average value of credit provided to customers also increased from £1,074 to £1,461.

Scott Law, CEO of Pay4Later said: "We are seeing record demand for our services and this is a reflection of the fact that retailers are increasingly waking up to the fact that providing point of sale credit to customers can dramatically increase the volume and value of sales. We estimate that retailers lose out on up to £13.4 million a day because customers walk away from purchases they want to make because the retailer could not offer them credit.

"I think another key factor is that as the economy recovers and more people are in work, they are more relaxed about using credit to make their purchases.

"We expect strong growth in 2015 because our research shows that over the next three years, two thirds of the retailers we interviewed expect their sales via white labelled customer finance packages to rise, with 36% claiming they will increase by over 10%."

Over 1,000 retailers use the Pay4Later platform, and they include Mothercare, World Stores, The Watch Shop, Shop To, Victorian Plumbing and 77 Diamonds.

77 Diamonds, the largest of a new breed of online diamond jewellers in Europe says around 20% of its sales now involve financing. Overall, it has seen a huge increase in customers using credit to make their purchases.

77 Diamonds founder Tobias Kormind said: "A growing percentage of our clients are requesting point of sale credit and we see this trend continuing. People feel more confident about their finances and are more relaxed about using credit. This has been instrumental in our recent sales growth and higher conversion rates."