Net Protections, Inc., a pioneer in credit tech that creates new forms of credit (Location: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Shin Shibata; hereinafter “Net Protections”), is pleased to announce that its deferred payment settlement service atone, which eliminates the need for credit cards, is now available at all Seicomart stores (Hokkaido, Ibaraki, Saitama) operated by the Secoma Group.
About Seicomart
Seicomart operates approximately 1,170 convenience stores nationwide, mainly in Hokkaido. Seicomart has the largest number of convenience stores in Hokkaido, boasting a regional coverage rate of over 97%. Loved by numerous customers, Seicomart offers fresh, safe, and healthy Secoma brand products, its “Hot Chef” cooked-in-store counters, large eat-in areas and more, providing a safe and relaxing place to eat.
More on Seicomart：https://www.seicomart.co.jp/
Expansion to major convenience store chains accelerating! Availability at online and brick-and-mortar stores breaks 100,000
With its introduction at Seicomart, as well as the recent introduction at other major convenience stores (*1), atone is now newly available at more than 38,900 stores. Including convenience stores at which atone was introduced last year (*2), it can now be used to shop at major convenience stores nationwide, which until now were typically thought of as just places to settle deferred payments. The atone service was also introduced at a number of major domestic online retailers (*3), bringing the number of stores at which it’s available to over 100,000 nationwide. Availability at both online and brick-and-mortar stores is rapidly expanding.
*1: Made available to convenience stores other than Seicomart via the code payment scheme “Smart Code” provided by JCB Co., Ltd. (Location: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Chairman and CEO: Ichiro Hamakawa).
More on Smart Code：https://www.smart-code.jp/
*2: Introduction at major domestic convenience stores : https://atone.be/news/2020/07160001/
*3: Introduction at major domestic online retailers : https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000143.000022451.html
About atone
“atone” is a deferred payment settlement service that eliminates the need for a credit card and allows customers to shop with just their smartphone.
The service is immediately available to general customers by registering as a member online. The amount used can be settled as one combined payment the following month. Points earned from use worth 0.5% can be used against payment. It is available to businesses (online/brick-and-mortar) for an industry-lowest fee of 1.9% + 30 JPY. Online businesses can grow sales by answering deferred payment needs, which account for about 20% of online shopping purchases, and brick-and-mortar stores can offer a new cashless experience to customers while still accepting cash payments.
More on atone : https://atone.be/business/retail/
*In line with atone’s renewal, atone code payment is currently only available to those who have a sufficient history of usage.
Details：https://atone.be/lp/notice/202106_ekyc/
Overview of Net Protections, Inc.
Net Protections, Inc. is a pioneer company in Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services in Japan and is leading the market with the largest market share (※3). In 2002, Net Protections launched its first service, NP Atobarai, a BNPL that guarantees risk-free transactions for businesses and provides a deferred payment for customers in Japan for the first time. In FY2020, NP Atobarai’s annual transaction volume has hit the growth rate of 116% compared to the previous fiscal year. NP Atobarai is used by numerous enterprises with over 15.8 million unique users in Japan (※4) and has processed more than 280 million transactions to date. In 2011, Net Protections released NP Kakebarai, a BNPL service for BtoB. NP Kakebarai has grown 127% yearly and played a role as the dominant BtoB payment service in Japan. In 2017, Net Protections launched atone, BtoC BNPL service with membership benefits that offers better shopping experience. In 2018, Net Protections released AFTEE, BtoC BNPL service in Taiwan. Net Protections has accumulated transaction data and knowledge since its first service launched, which has enabled it to build a sophisticated credit screening system and solid operation skills. Net Protections always pursues creating a society where everyone can do business safely and easily.
・Company Name：Net Protections, Inc.
・Representative：Shin Shibata, CEO
・Website：https://corp.netprotections.com/
・Business Outline：BtoC e-commerce Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service, NP Atobarai
BtoB BNPL service, NP Kakebarai
BtoC BNPL service, NP Atobarai air for individual day-to-day operations
BtoC BNPL service with membership benefits, atone
BtoC BNPL service in Taiwan, AFTEE
Point reward program, NP Point Club
・Founded：January, 2000
・Capital：JPY 100 million
・Headquarter：SUMITOMO FUDOSAN KOJIMACHI FIRST BILDING 5F,
Kojimachi 4-2-6, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0083 Japan
※1) Surveyed Japan’s top 300 companies in the “75th EC and mail order sales ranking” published in Tsuhan Shimbun as of Jan. 7, 2021. Based on the portion of merchants outsourcing BNPL operations that use NP Atobarai as of Mar. 1, 2020.
※2) Source: Company information.The number of annual unique users: the number of users based on the matching of names and phone numbers during a fiscal year (Apr.1, 2020 to Mar.31, 2021)
Direct any inquiries regarding this release to:
Direct any inquiries from media regarding this release to::
Representative：Miyoshi / Iizuka / Tsuchiya
TEL：03-5572-6062
Email：netprotections@vectorinc.co.jp
Direct any inquiries from businesses and individuals regarding this release to::
Representative：Net Protections PR Dpt.
TEL：03-4588-6843
Email：pr@netprotections.co.jp
