Affirm, the lending company started by Max Levchin that offers customers payment plans for online purchases, has announced that the company’s financing options will now be available to all U.S-based Shopify stores.
While Affirm’s financing options have already been available to select Shopify stores (including Boosted Boards), today’s launch rolls out the feature to all merchants on the platform.
In terms of actual implementation, store owners just have to opt into the payment option, similar to how Shopify lets merchants accept Bitcoin.
Store owners will also be able to choose how many installments will be available in customer’s payment plans. The company explained that this is because different item categories traditionally have different payment plan lengths. For example, customers normally prefer to pay off clothing in a shorter period of time than an item like a laptop or cell phone.
Max Levchin, founder and CEO of Affirm, said that existing merchants have experienced a 30 percent increase in sales after using the company’s platform to offer financing to customers.
The company is also seeing repeat purchases from 36 percent of Affirm users, which shows how valuable the new integration could be to Shopify merchants.
While an installment payment option may not make sense for stores that sell items with low retail values, an option like Affirm could be a boon for retailers that sell higher-priced items like jewelry or expensive electronics.
The integration rolls out today to all U.S-based Shopify stores, and merchants will be able to enable the checkout option regardless of item price or type.