Affirm's Insider Tips: How to Grow Your Online Business with BNPL
If you're looking to scale your eCommerce website and quickly extend your commercial reach, you should seriously consider adding more payment options at checkout.
Did you know buy now, pay later (BNPL) is one of the fastest-growing forms of payment in the world? BNPL services are growing at a rate of 39% a year, with a market share that’s set to double by 2023. While traditional installment plans focus on customers paying back their loans, BNPL has the main goal of closing sales.
This explains why consumer spending with BNPL is expected to rise by nearly 4 times in the next five years. Offering this pay-over-time method to your customers is a great way to take advantage of the rapid growth trend and drive more sales for your business.
The good news: If you’re a merchant based in the U.S., it takes little effort on your part to add a BNPL option to your checkout—especially with Affirm’s integration with Wix. Once it’s added and you’ve got a verified Affirm account, you can unlock maximum benefits for your business. For example, merchants who offer BNPL options with Affirm see up to an 85% increase in their average order value (AOV)*.
How to get the most out of adding a BNPL option to your site
Display BNPL at checkout and pull forward more sales
Spread the news to customers and prospects
Add BNPL messaging throughout your site
Leverage your email campaigns to drive more awareness
Reap benefits in customer loyalty
01. Display BNPL at checkout and pull forward more sales
Having a pay-over-time option at checkout has been shown to pull sales forward.
A recent study of shoppers using Affirm revealed that many of them would have abandoned their carts if the option to pay over time was not available. Here’s a breakdown of how these shoppers responded:
45% said they would have delayed their purchase
29% would not have completed their purchase
5% would have made their purchase elsewhere
These completed sales will add incremental revenue for your eCommerce business. What’s more, integrating a BNPL solution into your checkout can deliver upsides for customer acquisition and conversion. For example, a popular online store for sneakers saw a 25% increase in conversion during the first month after implementing Affirm on its site.
02. Spread the news to customers and prospects
Shoppers will want to know that you’ve added a BNPL option to checkout. Why not share the news with a dedicated marketing email or a social media post? You can also reference the flexible payment option as part of sales campaigns on social media. A luxury watch marketplace that offers Affirm pay-over-time options launched a similar ad campaign on Facebook, and the result was 38% more volume on sales with Affirm*.
03. Add BNPL messaging throughout your site
Alert shoppers before checkout about pay-over-time options available on your site. The placements can include banners on your homepage as well as on product pages. This is a baseline marketing tactic that raises awareness for shoppers “up funnel,” so many of them will decide to buy now and pay over time before they see the option at checkout. Keeping shoppers informed in the early stages of their buyer journey will also reduce abandoned carts.
Another advantage is bigger cart values. Wix stores connected to BNPL providers have seen a 25% increase in high-ticket transactions. When you allow shoppers to divide their payments, they’ll be more likely to make larger purchases.
Affirm hosts a library of easy-to-use assets that include examples you can incorporate into your messaging and marketing. There are downloadable PDFs that provide directions and different copy variations based on the products you offer. Use the banners and logos from the toolkit to seamlessly market Affirm to your customers across all channels and amplify conversion.
04. Leverage your email campaigns to drive more awareness
You can reference pay-over-time options as part of your email communications to customers. For example, remind them about flexible payment in abandoned cart emails. There are many reasons why a shopper may not commit to a purchase after loading it into a shopping cart—one could be they didn’t understand or see the payment flexibility that’s available on your site.
Sending them an email reminder gives you another chance to convert a browser into a buyer. In fact, Wix stores with abandoned cart recovery automations increase their sales by up to 29%. This can mean higher revenue and lower customer acquisition costs for you.
05. Reap benefits in customer loyalty
Giving shoppers more flexibility in how they pay for their purchases can yield dividends in customer loyalty. A recent TSG survey found that more than 8 in 10 customers who have used BNPL plan to do so again and wish BNPL were offered by more businesses. Another survey found that 48% of shoppers who prefer BNPL won’t purchase from a retailer that doesn’t offer it.
Shoppers appreciate how BNPL options can help make purchases more budget-friendly. Reminding them that these options are available on your site—through multiple touchpoints—can go a long way toward building loyalty and repeat business. This is how merchants who partner with Affirm to offer pay-over-time options see an average 20% increase in repeat purchases*.
Finally, not only will BNPL allow shoppers the flexibility to pay how they like, they’ll also be engaging with your business for a longer period of time. This will ultimately increase your customer retention rates and lifetime value (CLV).
Read more: Best businesses to start with little money
How to add Affirm to your Wix site
Wix Merchants in the U.S. can easily add Affirm to checkout and take advantage of the growth in BNPL sales. Wix has taken care of the Affirm integration for you—all you have to do is connect.
To connect Affirm, follow these 5 easy steps:
Log into your Wix account on desktop
Click Settings > Accept Payments
Go to See More Payment Options
Choose Affirm > Connect
Follow Affirm's instructions to complete setup
You can either create a new account or connect your existing one. Once connected, Affirm will immediately be added to your checkout, and your site will display on-site BNPL messaging on all your product pages.
“Buy now, pay later is definitely not a fad; it’s here to stay,” said Andrew Lipsman, eMarketer Principal Analyst at Insider Intelligence. So why not add it to your checkout today?
*Unless otherwise specified, this is based on Affirm’s data.
Payment options through Affirm are subject to an eligibility check, may not be available in all states, and are provided by these lending partners: affirm.com/lenders. CA residents: Loans by Affirm Loan Services, LLC are made or arranged pursuant to a California Finance Lender license 60DBO-111681.
Tom Musbach
Content Marketing at Affirm
A former journalist, Tom develops and manages B2B content creation at Affirm. He previously managed content production at Bank of the West and Yahoo.
