Industry Spotlight: Ecommpay brings Visa Instalments to the checkout

 

Over the last couple of years, the global ecommerce market has undergone a significant shift. COVID-19 not only changed how people shop, but also how they pay. Today, consumers hold all the power. Not only can they buy what they want, when they want, but online shoppers expect the same convenience and degree of choice at the checkout. 

As the cost of living continues to rise, alternative payment methods like Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) have grown in popularity, offering shoppers a way to manage their budgets without delaying gratification. With 20% of consumers abandoning their purchase if the seller doesn’t offer their preferred payment method, payment flexibility at the checkout is no longer a nice-to-have, but a way for merchants to stay competitive and cater to customer demand.  

From a fintech trend to a checkout standard

The concept behind what we know today as BNPL is not new. For decades, several department stores and other businesses offered instalment plans that would allow clients to leave shops with high-ticket items and pay for them over time. In the same vein, today BNPL is a short-term type of loan that enables customers to pay for their purchases in fixed instalments that are spread over a period of time. However, BNPL options are now directly embedded into ecommerce checkouts, fast, and tailored to modern spending habits. 

In 2024 alone, BNPL reportedly accounted for 5% of the global ecommerce value, or roughly USD 342 billion. Nowadays, BNPL is far from a fleeting trend as it is now deeply embedded in consumers’ everyday life, from purchasing retail goods to booking travel.  The global BNPL online value is expected to grow at a 9% CAGR through 2030 and reach approximately USD 580 billion. As BNPL continues to grow in popularity, several regulatory bodies around the world are exploring rules that would protect consumers from becoming overindebted. 

In 2024 alone, estimates suggest that over 380 million users have opted for BNPL at the checkout, with the figure expected to exceed 670 million by 2028. From a demographic perspective, BNPL is particularly popular among Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X, and has a lower adoption among older generations. Its constant rise in popularity coincides with younger generations now accounting for a significant share of consumer spending.  

Although fintechs have initially played the leading role in driving the adoption of BNPL, banks and card networks have started to reclaim market share by introducing similar instalment offerings. 

What are Visa Instalments?

Similar to other BNPL offerings, Visa Instalments enables merchants to offer consumers the option to split purchases into fixed payments over time. However, the key difference lies in the fact that Visa’s solution leverages the customer’s existing Visa credit card, which has already been subject to affordability checks. 

As part of the process, Visa notifies the issuing bank to approve the credit instantly, so that the customer does not need to fill in any additional applications and, consequently, never has to leave the merchant’s checkout page.  

Artur Gocs, Chief Operational Officer at Ecommpay, explains: “Instalment solutions are now very much part of the payment choices ecommerce merchants can offer to their customers. However, for higher-value transactions, there is still the potential for delay while credit checks are carried out. The difference with Visa Instalments is that credit lines are already established for Visa credit card holders, which enables a faster checkout. Plus, the familiarity of the Visa name gives customers confidence that their payments and personal details are secure.” 

Ecommpay announces the introduction of Visa Instalments

Ecommpay announced a new development in its partnership with Visa, with the company recently introducing an integration, expected to go live end of July 2025, that will offer merchants access to add Visa Instalments at checkout. 

With recent data placing the global digital shopping cart abandonment rate at 70.19%, for merchants, optimising the checkout process is a key part of an effective payment strategy. The new solution is anticipated to help merchants drive higher conversion rates and increase the average order value. Designed for global merchants, Visa Instalments supports multiple payment methods, multi-currency transactions, customised payment workflows, and is compliant with local regulations. 

When commenting on the recently announced future integration, Artur Gocs emphasised that: “By integrating Visa Instalments, we have further strengthened our comprehensive suite of payment solutions, empowering merchants to tap into the rapidly growing BNPL market, which currently accounts for 5% of all online payments and is experiencing significant growth. Merchants can optimise their checkout process and enhance their overall customer experience, in many cases in just a few clicks.”

Conclusions

Ecommpay’s decision to integrate Visa Instalments reflects a broader shift in how payment providers are adapting to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers, who expect a greater choice at the checkout. Moreover, for merchants, the upcoming integration enables them to offer more payment flexibility to their customers without adding complexity. This also means that merchants can benefit from higher conversion rates and an uplift in the average order value that is usually associated with BNPL models, but through a more familiar, card-based infrastructure. 

About the author

Diana Vorniceanu (Lupuleac) is a Senior Editor at The Paypers. She has an extensive background in content creation and is a graduate of Foreign Languages and Literature studies, currently specialising in payments and ecommerce. She strives to bring forward the latest trends for our readers, while investigating the ever-evolving landscape of cross-border payments, global ecommerce, payments for marketplaces and online platforms, and emerging technologies across the globe. You can reach Diana via email at diana@thepaypers.com or on LinkedIn.