Afterpay sales double to $11.1 billion

After seeing its share price rise 10-fold since March, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) darling Afterpay (ASX:APT) has today announced a 112 per cent jump in underlying sales to $11.1 billion.

The largest part of that increase came from the US where underlying sales were up 330 per cent to reach $4 billion, compared to a 52 per cent uptick for its leading Australia-New Zealand market with $6.6 billion.

The remaining $600 million came from Afterpay's incipient UK business.

In statutory terms, Afterpay recorded a loss of $22.9 million which is almost half of what it was in FY19, despite increased costs of $3.7 million relating to an AUSTRAC investigation.

Afterpay also went live in Canada this month with a number of merchants in testing and initial launch phase.

"A pipeline of integrating merchants, including well-known brands on the Afterpay platform in other jurisdictions, are expected to come online during H1 FY21," the company said in its announcement this morning.

Active customer numbers also more than doubled to almost 10 million, with the US now accounting for more than half of Afterpay's customer base although active merchant numbers in North America are still around quarter of AUS-NZ.

"The US market opportunity is still developing and Afterpay is rapidly extending its prominent market position," Afterpay said.

"With higher customer retention and frequency than local competitors, Afterpay delivers significant value to US retailers."

New US-based merchants in the works include Lululemon, Charlotte Tilbury, Puma, Native Shoes and Huda Beauty, while the group has also signed a deal with specialty retailer Gap Inc to offer Afterpay across the Athleta, Banana Republic, Gap, and Old Navy brands.

The company notes strong performance in the last quarter of FY20 has continued into the current financial year.

"Online sales in ANZ accelerated into July and August. The recent on-boarding of large scale, new vertical merchants in ANZ is expected to deliver continued growth into FY21," Afterpay said.

"US underlying sales in July have continued at the record levels experienced in Q4 FY20 and customer acquisition has remained strong.

"Merchant acceptance in the UK continued strongly since 30 June 2020 with 450 additional active merchants added to the platform."

Thanks to a recent capital raising, the BNPL giant has more than $2 billion in liquidity to drive future growth plans.

Afterpay's average order value per customer remains low at $153.

Business News Australia