Alma Counts on Numeral for Automated Merchant Payments

Buy now, pay later provider Alma has launched a partnership with payments platform Numeral.

The collaboration, announced Wednesday (May 10), will see Numeral automating “millions of payments” per year to merchants with the help of French bank BNP Paribas. The companies say their team-up is happening at a time when merchants are seeking new options for customers who increasingly expect flexible payment methods.

“As part of our goal to create the most fluid and seamless experience for both merchants and customers, paying our 11,000-and-growing merchants reliably and efficiently is critical,” Alma Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Guillaume Desloges said in a news release.

“Numeral enables us to scale with confidence and focus on our core business.”

According to the release, Numeral lets Alma automatically send daily payouts from its BNP Paribas’ accounts to its merchants. Though completely automated, the process is secure for Alma and its merchants, as each payout is validated using Alma’s systems, and Alma’s teams have complete visibility of each payment.

The partnership comes at a time when a number of key metrics in the world of buy now, pay later (BNPL) appear healthy, as PYMNTS wrote Wednesday.

For example, volumes — variously defined as gross sales volumes or merchant sales volumes — are up across the board, markedly so.

Splitit, for example, saw merchant sales volumes surge 34% year over year, while PayPal’s volumes swelled 70% year over year to $6 billion. Block (Square’s parent), said its BNPL platform generated $5.6 billion in volumes in the first quarter, an 18% since last year.

Elsewhere, PayPal and Block noted during their calls that ticket sizes grow when BNPL is an option at the point of sale.

PayPal management said during an earnings call that consumers have been spending 30% more on branded checkout when they use BNPL, adding that more than 90% of the customers using BNPL are already PayPal customers.

Amrita Ahujam, finance chief at Block, said that integrating Afterpay with the Square and Cash App ecosystems has yielded some “encouraging early adoption” as its Discover tab fuels increased engagement with BNPL for both in-person and online transactions.

“We’re seeing evidence that BNPL is finding wide berth even beyond these aforementioned providers: Amazon Rewards Visa cardmembers are now being offered the option to pay over time,” according to emails seen by PYMNTS.