Fashion Nova, one of the leading e-commerce fashion retailers, has just teamed up with Afterpay to offer more flexible payment options to its customers. Afterpay joins Zip to round out Fashion Nova’s installment payment platform offerings.
Afterpay allows customers to divide their purchase into four equal payments, which can be made with either a debit or a credit card. The first payment is due at the time of purchase and the three remaining payments are made every two weeks. The two-week installments dovetail with many customers’ paycheck schedules, allowing them to budget accordingly. Responsible customers can avoid the spiral of debt that so often occurs with consumer credit purchases.
Afterpay had a very successful fiscal year in 2021 and saw its customer base in North America grow to over 20 million customers. It’s popular among Gen Z and Millennials, with Gen Z representing the fastest growing share of its market. In addition to the United States and Canada, Afterpay’s 100,000 worldwide retailers can be found in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain, where it’s called Clearpay.
Both brands see the partnership as a way to cater to younger consumers. Gen Z customers are very fashion-forward, and prefer to pay responsibly over time using installments. They represent a very powerful segment of the fashion market in terms of purchasing power for both companies.
However, merchants benefit as well. Afterpay offers a Shop Directory where consumers can check to see which retailers offer the platform as a payment option. Gen Z tends to be highly engaged with the Afterpay Shop Directory, and the platform generates over a million referrals to merchants each day.
The partnership was timed to occur when customers are looking to update their fall wardrobes, snag some new looks for the holiday season, and purchase holiday gifts.
Fashion Nova is a worldwide retailer of cutting-edge trends, particularly in women’s fashion. It has positioned itself as a leader in the quick-to-market model. Fashion Nova’s goal is offer fresh styles to their customers at a reasonable price that the average person can afford. Teaming with Afterpay is one part of the company’s strategy to create greater accessibility for its customers.
The company also prides itself on making fashion accessible to people whose measurements may make it difficult for them to find trendy clothes in most stores. To that end, they launched their Curve line in 2017. (They also feature menswear and clothes for kids.)
For a company that caters to a younger crowd, it’s not surprising that Fashion Nova is a master at using social media to drive sales. Their 25 million plus followers, many of whom found the brand on Instagram, are inspired by a network of 3,000-5,000 influencers, according to the company’s founder. Quite a few of these influencers are celebrities – Cardi B and Kylie Jenner, to name just two. As Fashion Nova says, “there isn’t a famous booty our jeans haven’t been on.” The company has consistently been at the top of the most-searched-for brand lists for several years.
“We work with 3,000 to 5,000 influencers,” said CEO Richard Saghian to VICE. “It’s kind of like this ripple effect. The more people shout us out, the more their fans shout us out. Kind of like a viral Youtube video. We’re a viral store.”
But Fashion Nova doesn’t just exist online. In fact, it started as a brick-and-mortar store in Panorama City, California. The company owns five locations in Southern California today.
Afterpay and Fashion Nova have both dialed in to what matters to the target market – hundreds of new styles every week that are worn by top celebrities and yet still affordable for the average person, who can post a picture of herself wearing the same clothes on the same social media platform as her favorite celeb. The payment plan works for a younger generation who, according to analysis, is more financially savvy than their predecessors and prefers to avoid large debts and save more.