The Afterpay Touch Group Ltd [ASX:APT] share price shot up by nearly 4% this morning and has now dropped off slightly, sitting 2.88% up at time of writing.
This continues a positive trend for the fintech giant, its share price having climbed yesterday too on the back of general market enthusiasm for the ‘buy now, pay later’ concept.
As a result, fellow players in this game are also skyrocketing, including Splitit [ASX:SPT] and Zip Co Ltd [ASX:Z1P], both up 7.87% and 10.69% at time of writing, respectively.
Does Afterpay have what it takes to compete with up and coming rivals?
Battle of the ‘buy now, pay later’ stocks
It’s been reported that a higher percentage of Afterpay’s earnings these days comes from repeat customers instead of new ones.
While it’s great that Afterpay has a loyal and engaged customer base, retailers might look to more acquisition-focused companies for faster growth.
If Zip and Splitit manage to execute this, then Afterpay could be left in the dust.
Then again, Afterpay is the father of these payment solutions giants and the most recognisable brand (in my opinion).
‘Just Afterpay it’, is becoming akin to ‘just Google it’. Splitit and Zip just don’t seem to have the saturation in the ecommerce lexicon just yet.
But that could be about to change…
Are Afterpay shares worth buying?
There’s a lot of excitement in this space, no doubt.
Afterpay could zoom to even greater heights, however there’s no denying it has a lot of strong competition to contend with. And I haven’t even mentioned Apple Pay or other payment solution providers.
It’s a volatile space, but as a rule, the trend for more diverse and accommodating payment types is increasing. This, I believe, means the stock is in the right space for growth.
If Afterpay can make it big in the UK and US before Zip and Splitit get a word in, then the sky could be the limit.
Then again, you could just invest in all three…
It will be a rough battle for sure, but no less entertaining (and hopefully profitable!).
Regards
Ryan Dinse
For Money Morning
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