Closing the Loyalty Loop with Buy Now, Pay Later

Buy-Now-Pay-Later has gone from novelty to norm almost overnight. 

Shoppers want flexibility at checkout. Yet offering that flexibility can trip up both retailers and customers. In many stores, high merchant fees and juggling multiple BNPL apps still create friction. However, the UAE doesn’t roll that way.

My visit to Majid Al Futtaim saw the benefits of BNPL, keeping the customer at the core. 

BNPL woven directly into SHAREPay via Tabby

Here’s how it works on the ground. A shopper taps to pay with their usual SHAREPay wallet. On-screen they tap a “Pay Later” option. Tabby’s “Pay in 4” splits the purchase into four interest-free instalments, but crucially, this happens in the SHAREPay flow. There’s no separate scanning of QR codes or re-entering the merchant. Because it’s built into the checkout, you can use BNPL even at a store that hasn’t signed up for Tabby; MAF’s platform handles it. It’s frictionless: “Shop now, pay over 4,” with the full transaction processed by SHAREPay.

Importantly, nothing is lost in this split payment. Customers still earn full loyalty points upfront, even as they pay over time. MAF explicitly touts that it’s “instant earn and redeem” even when using Tabby. And Tabby adds zero hidden fees; it’s interest-free by design. For merchants, there’s no extra cost either (thanks to MAF’s master agreement with Tabby).

This fully closes the loop

• The loyalty program seeded the habit (points in)
• The payment wallet simplified checkout (SHAREpay used)
• And now integrated BNPL (Tabby out) lets shoppers flexibly pay and still earn points up front. 

It’s a textbook example of embedding finance into retail: at every step: earning points, spending points and financing purchases happens in one place.

The impact shows up in the numbers

Since its launch in mid-2023, SHAREPay’s BNPL feature with Tabby has significantly outperformed.  Flexible payment options have driven notable growth: merchants have reported basket size increases between 25-50%, with some, like Carrefour, experiencing close to 70% growth in average order value. Customers are shopping more frequently to the tune of a 45% jump in repeat purchases when BNPL is available.  Shoppers spend more especially when they can spread costs over time, all without missing out on loyalty rewards..

Looking outward, this mirrors a big FinTech trend: the smart blending of loyalty, credit, and payments. BNPL once stood alone, but now leading retailers are merging it into their own customer ecosystems. MAF’s SHAREPay–Tabby partnership shows what that can look like at scale. By closing the loop, from loyalty to lending, they’ve turned a retail visit into a seamless financial journey. 

It appears like BNPL and incentives have a shared future.