Walmart’s One Launches BNPL Service: Sparking Payment War

It could well be that Affirm gradually phases out its services from Walmart altogether, after recently shifting its attention from retail and e-commerce to offer BNPL services in the healthcare space, primarily for elective medical procedures. 

As for One, the 2019-founded BNPL provider, its presence in Walmart stores follows previous efforts to expand its offerings in a bid to onboard new customers. 

In 2023, the fintech offered 5% interest rates on savings accounts of up to US$100,000 – more than 12 times the national average at the time (0.4%). 

The fintech attracted significant attention in 2021 after receiving backing from Omer Ismail, Goldman Sachs CEO. 

Now that it has moved into the lending space with BNPL options available, it is one step closer to achieving its ambition of becoming a financial super app, where consumers can spend, borrow and save money. 

Speaking to CNBC, former Goldman Sachs consultant Jason Mikula says: “I have to imagine the goal is to have all this stuff, whether it’s a credit card, buy now, pay later loans or remittances, to have it all unified in an app under a single brand, delivered online and through Walmart’s physical footprint.”

For now, while Affirm remains the dominant BNPL option at Walmart, One’s introduction to certain stores looks set to spark a payments war, both in Walmart’s in-store and e-commerce spaces. 

Fostering competition in the BNPL space, Walmart is meeting customers where they are, with the popularity of BNPL services skyrocketing in recent times. 

Per Adobe Analytics, US$19.2bn in online spending was done so via BNPL between January and March 2024 alone, a 12% increase year-on-year. 

Now that more BNPL options are available at the US’ leading retailer, it can only be expected that the popularity of BNPL will grow even more in the months ahead.