Mala McAlpin Spas, salons and clinics that currently (or wish to) offer payment plans to clients can rejoice, as Timely has become to first salon software system to incorporate Afterpay. And the best part – businesses will still receive the full purchase amount upfront.
Customers can now pay off their products or services in four equal instalments, with two weeks between each payment. Businesses will receive the full amount immediately through Afterpay, and clients will continue to repay their increments direct to Afterpay over 6 weeks.
According to the website, Afterpay is Australasia’s largest buy now, pay later payment provider, and as it stands, has around 2.3 million users – with 90% of their transactions coming from return users. Only launching mid-last year, it’s still a very new service, with user numbers undoubtedly expected to continue growing.
The service seamlessly integrates with Timely’s booking software via the Afterpay app on the client’s phone. They simply download the app before or during their checkout process, where a code is generated and can then be scanned or entered manually into Timely by the receptionist. If approved, your business will receive full payment and the customer’s payment plan to Afterpay will begin. The full payment will be made to your nominated bank account, and generally takes around 2 days to clear.
Afterpay also manages all fraud and credit risk, so basically, you never need to worry about a client defaulting on their payment plan, as you might if you were managing partial payments within the salon manually.
Currently, this Afterpay integration is only available to Australian and New Zealand-based customers. The service is also only available in-store, however, Timely says online payments is something they are keen to add on in the future!
Businesses wanting to set up Afterpay through their Timely account simply need to get in touch directly, or go to their ‘Sales’ settings. There aren’t any setup fees, but a small percentage will be charged by Afterpay per transaction. Clients wanting to use the service must be over 18 years old and hold a valid credit or debit card.
Before Timely, New Zealand co-founders Ryan and Andrew built BookIt; a booking software designed for the NZ tourism industry. When BookIt was acquired by Fairfax in 2010, the guys decided to build Timely, to address a lot of small business owner requests for a system designed for the spa, clinic, salon and gym industry, since existing options were expensive and complex.
Since then, Timely has flourished in Australia, establishing a reputation for being modern, progressive and implementing feedback from users wherever possible to improve their functionalities.
