Offering Afterpay has boosted business growth at Laters.com, with customers booking more often and spending more on every trip.
When Alex Yardley and co-founder Arvin Singh launched travel booking website Laters.com they not only wanted to make flights easy to find and compare, they also wanted to make them easy to buy.
That’s why offering Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) was always a crucial part of their business plan.
It’s a decision that’s paid off. Customers who purchase flights on Laters.com with Afterpay book 35 per cent more often and spend 25 per cent more per trip.
It isn’t just Laters.com that benefits. Yardley says that offering Afterpay is useful for customers, too, enabling them to book unexpected flights or capitalise on sale fares before they sell out. "It allows you to lock in the price now and travel on that price, and pay over time.”
"It allows you to lock in the price now and travel on that price, and pay over time.”
Alex Yardley, co-founder Laters.com
About Laters.com
Yardley and Singh launched Laters.com (originally named FlyFairly) in 2024 as a flight-booking site offering a range of payment methods, from cryptocurrency to Afterpay.
More than a million travellers book flights on Laters.com every year on more than 650 airlines.
Yardley, who previously headed up commercial teams at industry heavy-hitters Agoda and Booking.com, says the platform has enjoyed 50 per cent month-on-month growth since launch.
Letting customers book now, pay later
Afterpay lets customers book flights when they need them and pay over time. This is especially useful for customers booking unexpected flights.
"Making travel affordable is probably one of the most important things you can do for people," says Yardley. "It's not always about an indulgent trip, sometimes you just really need to travel."
Catering to everyone – and the next generation of travellers
Yardley built Laters.com with a clear picture of where travel payments were heading. "Digital wallets have been the overwhelming majority of online sales in Asia," he says. "And Gen Z loves Buy Now Pay Later. So for us, it was all about building a business for the next generation of travellers."
But it turned out that there was more than just one age group using Afterpay. "What I found really interesting once we got deeper into this business is that actually it's not just Gen Z. It's almost ubiquitously used across every demographic.”
Families and groups use it just as much as solo travellers, as a way to spread the cost of a bigger trip. "If we want to serve our customers, we give them what they're asking for, and overwhelmingly, they're asking for Afterpay."
"And Gen Z loves Buy Now Pay Later."
Alex Yardley, co-founder Laters.com
Booking more, and more often
Offering payment flexibility has led to travellers shifting their habits – and spending 25 per cent more per trip.
Yardley says customers who check out with Buy Now Pay Later services tend to make shorter, more frequent trips.
Rather than saving up for one long trip a year, customers spread their travel out with a weekend here, a new city there. "They'll go back again for just a weekend, rather than having to stay for three months," he says. "[Afterpay] allows them to plan responsibly."
And because Afterpay lets customers lock in a fare before prices climb, it’s more cost-efficient, too. "You put it on a credit card, and it costs you more because you pay interest," Yardley says. "If you pay with Afterpay, you lock the price in earlier."
"Afterpay allows them to plan responsibly."
Alex Yardley, co-founder Laters.com
A trust tool
Building a brand takes time, but Yardley says partnering with Afterpay helps strengthen the authority of a new platform like Laters.com.
"Being able to partner with industry leaders like Afterpay gives a tremendous amount of trust and validation to customers when they're coming in.”
That’s why Laters.com promotes Afterpay across its website, including at the top of the home page and on a dedicated FAQ page. Travellers can also see a breakdown of how much they’ll pay in instalments with Afterpay when they’re selecting their flights.
Yardley describes the onboarding process “really easy” and says that as well as being a seamless set up, the ongoing partnership has been invaluable. “The consulting support and guidance from Afterpay has demonstrably helped us drive bottom line value, not only in driving awareness from the brand perspective, but also in driving increased revenue.”
For Yardley, partnering with Afterpay is a no-brainer. “If you just accept traditional payment methods, you're simply missing out on the additional increase in AOV and frequency.”
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