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How Southeast Asian Merchants Can Enable BNPL for Daily Essentials in 2026

April 14, 2026

Overview

In recent years, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has emerged as a popular payment method for big ticket items, such as the latest iPhone, a new refrigerator, or even birthday gifts. However, in 2026, this behavior is shifting, consumers are now turning to BNPL even for mid-sized tickets for necessities, such as groceries or utilities.

From wants to need, merchants who embed BNPL as an offering at checkout will gain the competitive edge in this ever-shifting digital payments landscape.

Why Merchants Need Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) at Checkout

The usage of Buy Now, Pay Later services in Southeast Asia has long strayed away from being limited to luxury purchases. According to SPayLater by Shopee, over 32,000 Malaysians are reported to have used BNPL to cover emergency expenses, financial shocks and manage finances until payday.

In the broader market of Southeast Asia, a joint study by HSBC, Google Cloud and PCMI reported 75% of consumers in SEA underscores embedded BNPL services as useful and convenient.

For merchants operating in Southeast Asia, offering these services at checkout positions yourself as a competitive choice for your consumers.

What is BNPL Used For?

Regardless of ticket size and industry, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has proven to serve consumers in various use cases. Some of the examples include:

In any of the use cases, the merchant always gets paid upfront, while the provider handles the repayment terms with the consumer.

Which BNPL Providers are the Best?

The BNPL landscape in Southeast Asia is fragmented with different providers offering different plans, terms, and promotions. By understanding each provider, you can offer the right one your customers want.

Here are the key players you need to know:

Regional Players:

• Atome: Atome is one of the leading BNPL providers in Southeast Asia with an established presence, offering flexible payment plans across various product categories including fashion, beauty, lifestyle, homeware and more.
• PayLater by Grab: PayLater by Grab is a BNPL service offered to Grab users across Grab’s key regions like Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Serves as a top choice for existing Grab e-hailing and food delivery users.
• SPayLater: SPayLater is a BNPL service offered by Shopee, one of Southeast Asia’s leading e-commerce platforms. It is notable for being one of the few with a Shariah-compliant option.

Local Choices:

• The Philippines: BillEase is a critical player for the unbanked, offering long-term installment plans for big ticket items and services.
• Indonesia: Kredivo and Indodana are the market leaders here, serving the massive unbanked population with credit limits often higher than standard BNPL apps.

Choosing a BNPL Provider: Enable them all with Fiuu

For merchants and businesses looking to support BNPL at checkout, integrating with a payment service provider like Fiuu is a popular choice.

As the leading payment service provider in Southeast Asia, Fiuu offers a single integration to all the major BNPL providers across the region, regardless of ticket size.

As a Fiuu Merchant, you enjoy:

• One Integration, All Providers: Connect to every major BNPL provider with just one API integration, no need for fragmented dashboards.
• Unified Reconciliation: Access data from every channel via a single dashboard, simplifying administrative burden and time cost.
• Scalable Infrastructure: Enable new payment methods just like a switch, without requiring new integrations and platforms.

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