Beyond the Basket - 19/09/25

Friday 19th September | #33 | Join Free

Hello and welcome to your Friday Beyond the Basket brief. BNPL is officially everywhere as Gap joins the Klarna club, while Amazon just cracked open its Marketing Cloud for everyone (no coding required). UK shoppers are bracing for November's budget pain as confidence drops again, and Meta's making WhatsApp payments even easier for small businesses. Add in Pattern's $300M IPO debut and there's plenty to unpack as Q4 looms large. Let's jump in. 👇

In today’s beyond the basket:
🔻 UK Consumer Confidence Slips Again
🛍️ Gap Adds Klarna as BNPL Goes Mainstream
📊 Amazon Opens Up Marketing Cloud
💬 Meta Adds In-App Payments for SMBs on WhatsApp
💸 Pattern Raises $300M in IPO

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TL;DR: Two separate reports, GfK’s (Growth from Knowledge) Consumer Confidence Index and the British Retail Consortium survey, both show sentiment slipping further in September.

Why It Matters: GfK’s index dropped two points to -19, with all measures down as Brits brace for potential tax rises in November’s Budget. The BRC likewise found worsening expectations for the economy (-36) and personal finances (-7). With food inflation still +5.1% YoY and the Bank of England holding rates, shoppers are squeezed from all sides. The fact that two independent trackers are flashing red reinforces the risk of a subdued Q4.

Your Move: Q4 is shaping up to be about deals, offers, and value-first messaging. Recent signals suggest shoppers are starting earlier than ever, with sales activity expected to pick up in early October. Get campaigns, inventory, and discount strategies ready now to capture spend before peak season fully hits.

TL;DR: Gap Inc. has partnered with Klarna to offer buy now, pay later across Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta in the U.S.

Why It Matters: BNPL is shifting from a “nice-to-have” to a standard checkout expectation, especially for younger shoppers wary of credit cards. Klarna now serves 26M U.S. shoppers and over 724K sellers worldwide, and just debuted on the NYSE. For Gap, this move aligns with efforts to regain relevance after flat Q2 sales, giving customers more flexibility at checkout alongside Apple Pay and Afterpay.

Your Move: Review your payment stack, BNPL is fast becoming no longer optional. Offering multiple flexible payment options can reduce cart abandonment and meet shifting consumer expectations.

Wider Context:
Klarna joins Apple Pay for in-store BNPL – Shoppers in the U.S. and UK can now use Klarna installment loans directly through Apple Pay at checkout, pushing BNPL deeper into everyday offline spending. Read More ›

TL;DR: Amazon has quietly rolled out direct, self-service access to its Marketing Cloud (AMC) for sponsored ads advertisers globally, no reps, approvals, or coding required.

Why It Matters: AMC is Amazon’s privacy-safe analytics engine, traditionally gated to big brands and agencies. Now, any advertiser can tap into customer journey insights, from delayed purchases to cross-product conversions, straight from the Ads Console. The update includes no-code templates and AI-assisted queries, making AMC more accessible while still powerful. This comes hot on the heels of Amazon’s AI agent for sellers, signaling a major push to democratize enterprise-level tools across its ecosystem. For smaller brands, this could level the playing field; for larger ones, it accelerates workflow speed and independence from partners.

Your Move: Consider testing AMC’s prebuilt templates to explore funnel and repeat-purchase trends. Even light use can reveal insights to guide audience targeting, budget shifts, and which campaigns truly drive incremental sales. Worth exploring as part of your broader marketing mix heading into Q4.

TL;DR: Meta now lets small businesses accept direct payments inside WhatsApp Business App, including via QR codes for instant checkout.

Why It Matters: WhatsApp already dominates as a customer communication tool in many markets. Embedding payments directly into chats removes friction, reducing abandoned sales when preferred payment methods aren’t available. Alongside this, Meta will now also let businesses use the WhatsApp Business App and the API at the same time, meaning they can keep handling one-to-one chats while also running automated campaigns in the background.

Your Move: Consider how in-app payments could fit into your customer journey, especially if WhatsApp is already a key channel. Even small adoption could reduce drop-offs and speed up conversions.

TL;DR: Ecommerce accelerator Pattern raised $300M in its U.S. IPO, giving it a valuation of $2.5B. The company supports brands across Amazon, Walmart, TikTok Shop, Mercado Libre, and more.

Why It Matters: Pattern’s public debut highlights the growing value of commerce enablers, firms that help brands scale across fragmented marketplaces. For ecommerce operators, this signals that investors see long-term demand for infrastructure that tackles marketplace complexity, global expansion, and channel diversification. It’s also part of a broader rebound in the U.S. IPO market, where digital commerce enablers are drawing attention.

Your Move: Watch how Pattern positions itself post-IPO, its focus areas and acquisitions will not only reshape the ecosystem of partners and accelerators that DTC and retail brands rely on, but also signal potential growth areas as the company now has to cater to shareholder expectations.

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