Atome, the fastest growing buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider is looking at a conservative growth forecast of 5 to 8 percent in 2023, following the massive growth of its gross merchandise value (GMV) that increased by 30 times over since its launch in the Philippines in late 2021.
“At some point in time it will slow down. The growth, I believed with be anchored on business development. It always is. The more merchants we’re going to have ,the more growth we’re going to generate because there will be more options for the consumers. The other drivers is to make sure to stay competitive and esnsure that your product answers the needs of Filipino consumers,” says Atome Philippine general manager Zine Neil.
The firm expects to grow its retailer base to as much as 2,500 by end-2023 as it other explore more promotional partnerships with banks.
“We’re aiming to partner with more banks to give more discounts to consumers because they need to have a card for them to be Atome use and we aim, as well, to expand our partnerships with banks to support the growth of our business,” Nedil disclosed.
Already, Atome is backed with strong financial partners in the Southeast Asia Region, giving strong financial muscle to support the platforms Philippine operations. Atome is a unit of Advance Intelligence Group.
While the BNPL provider has numerous partnerships with global retailers and virtual and offline marketplaces, it is focused on having more known Philippine brands onboard the platform.
Online and offline retailers partners of Atome cut across fashion, beauty, travel, electronics and sports categories. Key merchants include Agoda, Dyson, Inditex Group that include Zara, Bershka, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti, Nike, Penshoppe, Rustan’s, SM Store, Xiaomi and Zalora.
In recent months, Watsons Philippines and leading Philippine fashion retailer Suyen – which distributes brands such as Bench, Human, Kashieca, Cotton On, Aldo, Charles & Keith, Jo Malone, Mothercare, American Eagle and La Senza – also added Atome’s checkout option across hundreds of physical store outlets across the country.
This brings Atome’s total offline footprint to almost 7,000 physical stores in the Philippines. To further provide access to affordable credit among the unbanked and underbanked, Atome – which stands for “A-vailable TO ME” – also soft launched the Atome Card in the in the Philippines last August 2022.
Atome card, which gives consumers a pre-approved line of Atome credit of up to P200,000, received a strong response with over 120,000 registrations during the invite-only phase. Seventy percent of applicants are millennials, between 25 to 40 years old.
To enhance the overall user experience, Atome also has an in-app loyalty rewards program, Atome+ which allows consumers to earn points when they check out using Atome, to offset future purchases, as well as redeem rewards and experiences.
Atome is also planning to move beyond pay-in-3 deferred payments, and will soon launch multi-tenures plans of 6 and 12 months respectively, in response to strong demand and interest from both retailers and consumers.