Atome, Asia’s leading Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) brand, announced its entry into the Philippines, partnering with over 50 online and offline retailers across key shopping categories such as fashion, beauty, lifestyle and home and living.
Top retail partners include Agoda, Victoria’s Secret, Timex, Puma Select, Asus, New Era Caps, Giordano, Watch Republic and Timberland, who have come onboard to launch Atome as a “buy now pay later” payment option for customers. Other merchant partners include brands like Browhaus, Strip Manila, Apple & Eve, Mosaic, Mia Maison, Les Nereides, Davines, HairMNL, Palladium, True Religion, Plains and Prints and Ogawa.
Atome BNPL service will also be integrating its payment option at Mizuno, Cole Haan and Time Depot in the coming months.
Shoppers in the Philippines can now shop and pay using Atome at the above-mentioned merchant partners by either scanning a QR code at their physical store or selecting Atome as a payment checkout option on their website or mobile app.
Compared to similar services in the market, Atome does not charge interest and additional annual or service fees to consumers. Paying with Atome allows shoppers to purchase the products and services they want, and split their bill into three, zero-interest deferred payments over time.
Setting up an account takes three to five minutes and is completed entirely on Atome’s mobile app. Users will only have to link an active debit or credit card during the account set-up. A minimum order to pay with Atome is P300.
To celebrate Atome’s launch in the Philippines, new users who download Atome’s mobile app will receive a P200 welcome voucher that can be used for their first purchase with a minimum spending amount of P500.
Sheila Sta. Ines, head of business development at Atome Philippines, said: “We’re encouraged by the very strong demand by retail brands to partner with us during this initial soft launch phase. The retail sector in the Philippines is being severely challenged by the Covid-19 pandemic, with sales down by 90 percent pre-Covid.
Our success in other Southeast Asian markets has shown that average sales and order value can improve by up to 30 percent and that younger, digital-savvy customers really look forward to this flexible, zero interest payment option when shopping at their favorite retailers.”
“For Filipino consumers, it will be a completely new payment and shopping experience, one that is very easy to use and understand, and more importantly, one that is free of interest charges or service fees. Filipino consumers will also now have access to a smarter, better and more transparent way to shop and pay with Atome,” she said.
Blossom Morante, country head of operations at Victoria’s Secret, said: “We are glad to partner with Atome to enhance our customers’ shopping and payment experience, whether in-store or online. With its attractive key features of buy now pay later and 0% interest deferred payments, Atome is indeed a market innovator and we look forward to a very promising partnership, throughout the pandemic and beyond.”
Monique Jamlang, head of marketing and public relations at Harem Inc. (Browhaus and Strip Manila) and general manager of Cult Favorites, said: “Since we partnered with Atome, there’s been a significant increase in big ticket item sales through our website. With its formal launch in the Philippines, we’re expecting more sales to come through the Atome app and we are very happy with this partnership.”
Launched in Singapore in December 2019, Atome BNPL business has grown to become Asia’s leading buy now pay later platform, partnering over 5,000 online and offline retailers in 8 markets (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and mainland China) across key categories such as fashion, beauty, travel and lifestyle.
Key merchant partners already include Zalora, Sephora, Agoda, Shein, Zara, Marks & Spencer, Charles & Keith, Aldo, Furla and Pandora and many more.
Merchants have been able to grow average ticket sales and sales by 30 percent after adding Atome as a point-of-sale checkout option.
Atome’s parent company, Advance Intelligence Group, recently completed a $400 million Series D round, which values the group at $2 billion, making it one of the largest independent technology startups based in Singapore.
Atome Philippines mobile app is available on the App Store and on Google Play.