It’s official—hoolah is gone. In its place is ShopBack Malaysia’s in-app BNPL offering.

If you’re someone who loves to shop but like saving money while doing so, you probably know about ShopBack.

If not, here’s a quick summary: ShopBack is a cashback app that claims to have served over 30 million shoppers across the Asia Pacific, and given out over RM150 million worth of cashback to Malaysian users.

Now, ShopBack has just launched a new Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) checkout option that’s available in Malaysia.  

This comes after ShopBack’s acquisition of BNPL platform hoolah in November last year. As such, hoolah’s services have been migrated to ShopBack, according to Hamish Moline, managing director of financial services at ShopBack.

He also said that there is quite a big difference between hoolah and ShopBack PayLater. According to him, ShopBack itself has many customers and engaged merchants, so the discovery experience is very different from hoolah.

“When we combine both [hoolah and ShopBack] together, it’s really the combined offering that makes it so powerful,” Hamish said.

Users can find ShopBack PayLater integrated into the ShopBack app. To activate ShopBack PayLater, users will need to add a payment method and verify their identity.

Users must be 18 years old and above with a Malaysian-issued credit or debit card.

New users of ShopBack PayLater will have a limit of RM1,600 at first. This will be increased over time in accordance with users’ purchasing and repayment history.

Currently, ShopBack PayLater only offers its “Pay in 3” product, whereby customers can split their payments into three instalments at over 2,000 online and brick-and-mortar stores.

With that said, Hamish did say that the company is looking into other instalment options in the future.

In addition, shoppers can now monitor their expenses by checking their spending limit and tracking their upcoming bills in-app.

ShopBack users can also use their available cashback to offset upcoming purchases when they pay with ShopBack PayLater.

Focusing on the small wins

Existing users will notice that alongside the new BNPL offering, ShopBack has also received a makeover from its logo to its tagline.

ShopBack’s logo is now black and red, a departure from its previous pastel-ish red palette.

Its new tagline, “For The Wins”, seems to be largely symbolic of the brand’s direction too. “For The Wins” is a reference to “For The Win” or “FTW”, a familiar acronym for youngsters. This is reflective of ShopBack’s target demographic of younger crowds such as Gen Z shoppers.

“Here at ShopBack, we believe big things are powered by small wins, where cumulative triumphs add up to a huge impact for all,” said Jason Wong, the general manager of ShopBack PayLater, ShopBack Malaysia.

Over the next few weeks, ShopBack will be organising various pop-ups with some of its popular merchants.

This includes names such as JD Sports, Pomelo, Al-Ikshan Sports, and more. You can check out more information on where ShopBack will be next here.

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According to the Q4 2021 BNPL Survey, BNPL continues to be one of the fastest growing markets in Malaysia, with a 49% compound annual growth rate in Malaysia from 2022 to 2028.

This means the BNPL Gross Merchandise Value locally is expected to increase from US$287 million in 2021 to reach US$6.5 billion (that’s billion with a B) by 2028.

Clearly, the BNPL trend is now slowing down anytime soon, and ShopBack wants a slice of the market share.

With hoolah’s expertise and ShopBack’s existing market offerings and customer base, ShopBack PayLater certainly makes for one to watch.