Afterpay system goes down globally: Millions of shoppers stranded as the BNPL giant suffers a major outage, halting online and in-store payments. Retail sales face disruption
The global “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) market faced a sudden disruption today as digital payment giant Afterpay experienced a major system-wide outage, leaving millions of customers unable to complete transactions both online and in-store.
The service disruption, which began early this morning, was met with an immediate deluge of complaints across social media platforms from frustrated shoppers reporting payment declines, app login failures, and checkout error messages.
While Afterpay’s official status page later acknowledged the issue as a “major incident” affecting payment processing and core functionality, the cause of the technical failure was not immediately disclosed.
The outage highlights the growing reliance of modern retail on flexible finance options. With Afterpay integrated into the payment ecosystem of tens of thousands of retailers worldwide, the immediate impact was a halt in sales for many businesses and a wave of confusion for consumers accustomed to the convenience of paying in four instalments.
“I had my cart full and was ready to check out, but the Afterpay option just disappeared,” commented one user on X (formerly Twitter). “It’s frustrating when a company you rely on for budgeting just stops working without warning.”
For retailers, the timing of the disruption is particularly sensitive. Experts suggest that a prolonged outage could translate into significant lost revenue, especially given the platform’s role in driving incremental sales and larger basket sizes.
The company, a subsidiary of Block, Inc. (formerly Square), has confirmed its engineering teams are working urgently to restore full service.
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However, the incident is likely to renew scrutiny of the reliance on a few major BNPL providers and the need for robust system resilience in the rapidly evolving fintech sector.
Users are advised to check the official Afterpay status page for real-time updates and to use alternative payment methods until the issue is fully resolved.
