Specifically, Afterpay merchants can open their ecommerce sites to Australian, British, Canadian and New Zealand shoppers. Next year, global merchants will also be able to sell to U.S. consumers.

Cross border shopping represents a $1 trillion GMV opportunity1, with retailers gaining access to Afterpay's young and engaged customers worldwide. Shoppers see items in their local currency and benefit from the flexibility and convenience of paying in four installments over time, without incurring interest, fees or revolving and extended debt. Participating retailers can open their store fronts to these shoppers without paying set up or currency conversion fees.

Afterpay first introduced cross border shopping in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) in March 2019, which delivered YoY sales growth of nearly 576%. Because of such strong consumer demand, the number of ANZ merchants that are now selling outside their home country has grown 10 times.

"We have been very pleased with our cross border implementation. It has been seamless and very effective in scaling our efforts abroad as we grow globally," commented Justin Gaggino of Hi-Smile, an early adopter of Afterpay's cross border offering. "We have seen an approximately 30% increase in overall orders come through our cross border partnership with Afterpay."

"Cross border trade allows retailers to open their storefronts to the world - delivering new customers, higher conversion and ultimately more merchant sales, without additional set-up costs or fees," said Nick Molnar, Afterpay's Co-founder and CEO of North America. "We are particularly excited to offer cross border capabilities at a time when consumers are buying online more than ever and in advance of this busy holiday shopping season."