Carolyn Young: Retail NZ Chief Executive on buy now, pay later provider Laybuy entering receivership

The end of buy now, pay later provider Laybuy is being described as sad by experts.

The company has been put into receivership and services have been suspended. 

Retail NZ Chief Executive Carolyn Young says the sector has been impacted by decreased spending and reduced consumer confidence.

"We are in a really difficult environment in terms of retail... people just don't have the money in their wallets, and they're not prepared, cause they're buying on credit."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now the managing director of the buy now, Pay Later
service Layby I says he's heartbroken and having to put
the business into receivership. Gary Rolloff founded Layby in twenty sixteen.
You might remember it really well in the pandemic, but
then the business ran into trouble recently and all of
Gary's attempts to sell it have failed. Carolyn Young is
from Retail New Zealand and with us Now.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey, Carolyn, Charla, how are you doing very well?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Thank you? Did you realize they were in trouble?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
No, I hadn't heard anything up until last week. Cutting
the end of last week, there was some notifications that
went out to retailers.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
What went wrong?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, I think they've kind of outlined most of it.
You know, they are working in a retail space where
you know, we are suffering with the challenges around pressure
on the wallet, lack of consumer confidence. You know, there's
arranged competition out in the marketplace, there's some consumer fraud,
where there's issues in terms of profitability for the company,

(00:54):
and therefore those those things all happen impact on where
or not you can make these schemes work. Because it's
a triparthide arrangement between the consumer, the retailer, and the
buying now say later scheme provider.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Is there also just like a mood, it is something
souring for these kinds of products because to see Apple
also also shut its one down.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
I think we are in a really difficult environment in
terms of retail and these are designed around retail environments.
So people just don't have the money in their wallet
and they're not prepared because you're buying on credit. It's
a higher rate than an ordinary credit card and it's
a credit transaction. So therefore, are you confident that you
will have your job in two or three months time

(01:41):
when you need to continue to make those payments and
complete those payments? Yes or no? And if the answer
is no, then you're probably not going to purchase the product.
So if you aren't buying ordinarily on your debit card
or f boss card or credit card, then you wouldn't
be buying through these mechanisms. And we're seeing continued low
tunes in terms of retail sales and consumer confidence. So

(02:06):
I think when you look at that in that sense,
just they're in the market the same as everybody else,
and they're struggling in terms of Betspace.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yes, a really tough times. Hey Carolyn, Thank you so much,
Carolyn Young, Retail New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
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