BNPL, which allows consumers to pay for goods in instalments without interest, has been the rage in recent years. This popularity is attributed to giants such as Klarna. Cashing in on this growth, Billink, a Netherlands-based BNPL startup has secured €29.5 million in funding from the German Varengold Bank.
The Dutch startup will use the funding to expand its offering to the 50 largest Benelux web shops, enter the German market, and further fuel its ambitions to make buying online fairer, for both consumers and web shops by focusing on innovation and customer satisfaction.
After-sales payment method
Founded in 2009 by Laurens Withagen and Niels de Peuter in the Netherlands, Billink lets customers postpay their orders safely and easily. Both private and business customers can use Billink as a payment method. It benefits businesses as offering customers the option to see the product first before actually paying for it will boost conversion.
Currently, Billink has over 3 million users and counts more than 3,000 affiliated sales partners in the Netherlands and Belgium.
How does Billink work?
Postpay with Billink is easy. After having selected the product, customers select Billink in the checkout’s payment methods overview. Subsequently, the products are delivered to the customer. It offers the customer the luxury to decide which products to keep or return. After several days, the customer receives an invoice by email containing a payment link that allows them to pay for the invoice amount. Notably, customers get up to 14 days to pay the invoice.
“We differentiate ourselves by being a ‘local hero’,” said Frank Waagmeester, CEO of Billink. “We have been active in the payment market in the Benelux for over a decade and understand the challenges of our webshop owners. We see this reflected in, among other things, a high customer retention and satisfaction score and a 4.7 Trustpilot rating, the highest in the market. With this great foundation, we are ready to take the next step.”
“Offline, a consumer is used to paying only after receiving a service or product. Online, you pay in advance, just assuming that everything goes well and your purchase is to your liking. We think that’s unfair,” Waagmeester explained. “We are now working on Billink Check-out 2.0, which makes the customer experience even more personal and helps web shop owners further optimise conversion. For this we are not only talking to the largest webshops in the Benelux about their challenges and needs, we are also developing our own AI application.”
