The Laybuy Holdings Ltd (ASX: LBY) share price has been out of form recently and sank to a 52-week low of $1.23 on Monday.
In light of this, the buy now pay later (BNPL) provider's shareholders will be hoping that the release of a market update this morning will be enough to put its shares on a positive trajectory at long last.
What did Laybuy announce?
This morning Laybuy announced that it has achieved three major growth milestones.
One of these is its Tap to Pay product, which has been successfully released in New Zealand following the successful launch in Australia.
The company notes that it is the first BNPL provider to offer Tap to Pay in New Zealand thanks to the collaboration with Mastercard as part of the payment giant's Fintech Express program.
Management advised that Laybuy is already seeing a strong interest from consumers and looks forward to a UK rollout early in the new year once COVID headwinds ease.
Acceptance from consumers in both Australia and NZ has been strong and Laybuy is expecting continued strong growth. Particularly given the increased potential for further take up of its BNPL offering via simple Tap to Pay in physical retail stores.
US launch.
Another milestone that has been achieved is the launch of the beta testing of its offering in the United States via its Laybuy Global product with selected retailers. A full rollout is expected across the country in April 2021.
Management commented: "The US market is extraordinarily large and represents a significant opportunity for Laybuy. The US Census Bureau estimates that for the 12 months ended September 2020, the total US Retail market was US$5.5 trillion with online e-commerce representing over US$730 billion. BNPL is at relatively early stages of penetration in the US market and represents a strong growth opportunity."
Prezzee collaboration.
A third milestone the company announced is a collaboration with Prezzee.
This collaboration will see Laybuy offering customers the opportunity to 'Pay in 6' for gift cards at a huge variety of stores, initially across Australia and the UK.
It advised that via the Laybuy shop directory, consumers will be able to acquire gift cards, either for their own use or for gifts, from leading merchants. This includes ASOS (AU), Bunnings, Catch, Dymocks, Freedom, Ikea, Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN), The Iconic, and Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB).
Laybuy's Managing Director, Gary Rohloff, revealed that he was delighted with the pace at which the Laybuy team has been able to deliver these innovations to the market.
He added: "I also look forward to announcing further product feature enhancements in the first quarter of calendar year 2021. December trading has continued the strong momentum from November as customers use Laybuy as a budgeting tool in the lead up to Christmas, and I will be pleased to announce more record breaking performance as we continue into 2021."
