FuturePay allows online shoppers to consolidate accounts and pay one bill across multiple ecommerce sites.
“Buy now, pay later.”
It may well be the mantra of online shopping junkies the world over. With the help of a Nebraska startup, customers are able to do just that.
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FuturePay partners with online merchants to present consumers with a one-click payment option, all without using a credit card. The company, which is housed in Lincoln’s Fuse Coworking, exited “stealth mode” in June.
FuturePay’s Anthony Jiwa says the service appeals to shoppers wary of sharing credit card information online.
“FuturePay attracts new customers who don’t want to use credit cards and it is more convenient than other payment methods,” said Jiwa in an email to Silicon Prairie News. “Unlike other payment options, paying with FuturePay is like paying with cash.”
Generally if a customer wants to purchase goods from a variety of ecommerce sites, they must enter credit information multiple times and manage accounts across multiple platforms. FuturePay cuts those steps out, allowing users to create one account and breeze through online checkout like an express lane. At the end of the month, users receive a single tab that is payable by bank transfer.
So far, FuturePay has thrived on smaller online retailers trying to create a customer base. The company says it wanted to create a modern, independent platform for online retailers and shoppers, and FuturePay’s one-click shopping option has proven enticing.
“Shoppers are getting more savvy and want to make it more simple to check out,” said FuturePay’s business director Denise Purtzer (left).
So far FuturePay has been implemented as a payment option with Open Cart, Lemonstand and Jigoshop—a WordPress ecommerce plug-in—among others. Businesses pay no set-up or licensing fee to use FuturePay, but are charged a transaction fee on consumer purchases.
FuturePay hopes its simple API sets it apart from other online payment options like PayPal or BillMeLater. When the company presented at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition this year, Purtzer said that merchants were amazed at how easy the platform was to integrate.
“One of the things we wanted to concentrate on was making something very easy to use for customers but also for the merchants,” Purtzer said. “If somebody is willing to part with their money, by all means get them into the cart.”
That’s what FuturePay thinks is the big lure for online retailers: Customers are likely to spend more, faster when they don’t have to worry about filling out credit card information. Users are also able to roll their bill over to the next month for a one-time fee of $5, as opposed to a fixed APR required on platforms like BillMeLater.
While FuturePay’s businesses development team is based in Lincoln, the company also has developers on the West Coast and a credit management office in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Purtzer didn’t divulge investment information, saying only that the company is privately funded. Since exiting stealth mode two months ago, FuturePay has added two full-timers, bringing its team to ten full-time employees.
Learn more about how the FuturePay platform works:
Credits: Photo from FuturePay.com. Denise Purtzer from Linkedin.
