The Athlete’s Foot introduces Afterpay, in-store and online, in time to budget for back to school

Afterpay provides budget tool for parents concerned about new school year expenses

Sydney, Australia, 12 January 2017 –

Leading retail payments innovator Afterpay is now available at Australia’s largest specialty athletic and school shoe retailer, The Athlete’s Foot.

Introduced in time for back to school 2017, The Athlete’s Foot has implemented Afterpay online and in-store across Australia, helping parents budget expenses for the new school year and providing much needed financial relief at the end of the holiday period.

According to Back to School Research completed by Haymakr in March 2016, 65% of mums in Australia want to buy their children better quality school shoes but are constrained by budget. In addition, at the beginning of every school year, children need both sports shoes and school shoes for the year ahead, however only 32% of mums in January 2016 bought their children sports shoes at the same time as buying them their school shoes.

The Athlete’s Foot offers high quality school and sports shoes, including Clarks and the exclusive brand Ascent, coupled with an expert fitting service, ensuring parents value for money and quality product giving them peace of mind for the year ahead.

Afterpay is transforming the traditional layby into a budgeting tool – shoppers can buy now, receive now and pay later, putting down a quarter of the cost and paying over four equal fortnightly instalments. Consumers can now beat the holiday fiscal fatigue and be better prepared by spreading the start of the school year expenditure with Afterpay at The Athlete’s Foot.

Nick Molnar, Managing Director at Afterpay, said, “We are thrilled to have one of the country’s best known brands, The Athlete’s Foot, on board with Afterpay, offering its customers Afterpay both online and in-store. It is great to collaborate with such a well-respected business, especially at this time of year. Our main focus is to help our customers – Afterpay is unashamedly customer-centric, so it gives us satisfaction to help parents budget for the costly back to school purchases.”

Ian Taunton, National Sales and Operations Manager at The Athlete’s Foot, said, “The Afterpay launch is a welcome payment option for our customers, particularly around back to school for parents. We are committed to providing our customers with high quality and exclusive product, and an expert fitting service with our dedicated in-store Fit Technicians. Our customers want more choice, flexibility and benefits, and Afterpay plays an integral part in achieving this.” Afterpay is a ‘win-win system’ for customers, offering more options – the benefits of a layby service with an immediate take-home option helping to manage their monthly budget. It does not require customers to enter into a traditional loan, pay upfront or monthly fees or interest. Most importantly, Afterpay complies with the highest level of Payment Card Industry compliance (PCI DSS Level 1 Compliant) to ensure data security.
If the instalments are paid on time – the customer will not have to pay any extra amount. The only time a customer will pay any additional amount is if there is a late payment, however it is not in Afterpay’s interests for customers to make late payments.

Afterpay does not allow further purchases on accounts with outstanding payments owing. If this happens repeatedly, Afterpay no longer allows the customer to use the service.

As per the Terms on the Afterpay website – https://www.afterpay.com.au/terms/:

Late Payment Fee: $10 Late Payment Fee if a payment is due from you but not received by Afterpay in accordance with the Payment Schedule, with a further $7 Late Payment Fee added seven days after the payment is due if the payment is still unpaid. Other fees or charges: Nil.

About Afterpay Founded in 2014, Afterpay is a leading Australian retail payments innovator that facilitates commerce between retail merchants and their end-customers. Afterpay offers a ‘buy now, receive now, pay later’ service that is absolutely in the customer interest, not requiring end-customers to enter into a traditional loan or pay any upfront fees or interest. Afterpay currently has over 250,000 customers and over 1,500 retail merchants and in 2016, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. For more information, visit www.afterpay.com.au.

About The Athlete’s Foot The Athlete’s Foot is a premium retailer and the experts in fitting school shoes. As Australia’s largest school shoe retailer with over 135 stores and online, it offers the most comprehensive service, ensuring children get the best fit for their growing and active feet. The Athlete’s Foot uses its exclusive Fitting Technology, FITZI®, and trained fitting experts take all individual needs and activities into consideration. The Athlete’s Foot also has a huge range, from brands like Clarks, Ascent, Nike and New Balance. Kids of all ages can get fitted for school and sport – in the one place for convenience. For more information, visit www.theathletesfoot.com.au.

Images by Happyfeet34 and Mrs TG, Flickr, under creative commons licence.