The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price is having a great start to the week's trading this Monday. At the time of writing, Afterpay shares are up a healthy 1.03% to $131.69. That's well outperforming the broader S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), which is pretty much flat today, up 0.03% to 7,490 points so far.
So why are Afterpay shares having such a strong start to the week?
Well, it's not entirely clear. There are no major news or announcements out of Afterpay itself today. However, there have been some interesting developments in the buy now, pay later (BNPL) space that Afterpay helped pioneer.
We got some news yesterday in regards to the BNPL aspirations of one of the largest companies on the planet. According to a report in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) over the weekend, Amazon.con Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) has just inked a deal with the US-based BNPL provider Affirm Inc (NASDAQ: AFRM).
Amazon join's Afterpay's BNPL party
According to the report, Affirm will now be offered as a payment option on Amazon's American e-commerce platform. Customers will reportedly be able to select Affirm's BNPL option for purchases of US$50 or more, with the ability to 'pay later' in monthly instalments.
The report states that Affirm has confirmed that "the service was being tested with select customers now" and "would become more broadly available to shoppers in the coming months". This won't encompass the entire Amazon universe though. The company's Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh divisions will not be eligible for BNPL to start with.
Given a company like Amazon is embracing BNPL is arguably great news for all BNPL providers, including Aftepray. This is why we might be seeing the Afterpay share price rising this Monday.
This development is just the latest chapter in what has been a phenomenal year for BNPL shares.
Just last month, the blockbuster announcement that Afterpay is to be acquired by Square Inc (NYSE: SQ), another US e-commerce giant, really put a rocket under the entire sector.
At the current Afterpay share price, the BNPL pioneer is up 36.2% over the past month alone, and up 10.66% year to date in 2021 so far. It's also up 44% over the past 12 months.
At the current Afterpay share price, the company has a market capitalisation of $38.14 billion.
