Grafenia first with 'pay later' option

Grafenia is claiming a world-first with the addition of a new ‘buy now, pay later’ payment option to its Marqetspace printing platform.

The firm has integrated Klarna Bank’s payment technology with the Marqetspace site. This allows customers to choose to ‘pay 30 days later’ or, for orders over £99, to ‘slice it in three’ and pay for their jobs in three equal instalments over 90 days.

Both options are interest-free.

Chief executive Peter Gunning said Klarna had confirmed that Marqetspace was the first online printer in the world to use the technology.

“It took us about four months to get the agreements reached, platform developed and then approved for use,” he explained.

“Marqetspace sells to thousands of resellers, like printers and designers. We know that sometimes they’re paying for work before their clients have paid them. When we saw what Klarna were doing, we thought our clients might find it useful, particularly over the summer months when cashflow can be tight.”

Klarna carries out a ‘soft’ credit check as part of the process, “which doesn’t leave a footprint and isn’t visible to any other lenders, or Marqetspace”.

Swedish bank Klarna was founded in 2005 and has grown to become one of Europe’s largest banks. It handles payment solutions 130,000 merchants in 14 countries, involving 60 million consumers.

Gunning said Marqetspace had also recently added new products, including giant deckchairs and pop-up kiosks.