Consumers shopping on e-commerce sites that use Shopify’s e-commerce platform now have the option to make monthly payments for their online purchases.
Retailers can display online payment service Affirm Inc.’s Buy With Affirm financing option on their checkout pages.
“Shopify has merchants whose products and millennial customers are good fits for our service,” says Brad Selby, Affirm’s vice president of merchant services.
Affirm, launched by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin in 2012, caters to consumers ages 18-34, as well as to students, debit-card-only users, new U.S. citizens and people who don’t trust or use credit cards. The company’s Buy With Affirm program for merchants launched in June 2014. Since Affirm started testing its program with Shopify six weeks ago, about 100 retailers who use Shopify as their e-commerce platform have signed on to offer the payment option, Selby says.
Affirm charges an online retailer the same rate, 2-3%, as typical credit card processing fees, the company says.
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Among the merchants on Shopify offering the payment option are UNIF fashion clothing site; LIFX, a LED lightbulb company; homewares seller Apt2b, and Boosted Boards, an electric skateboard company based in San Francisco, says Selby.Affirm projects overall online lending volume with Shopify merchants and its hundreds of existing customers to reach up to $600 million by year’s end, Selby says.
ICracked, an on-demand repair service for iPhones, iPads, iPods and Samsung Galaxies, credits Affirm’s service for 20% of its recent repair technician sign-ups.
“It is definitely significant,” says Mike Silveira, iCracked’s performance manager. “It’s really been a game-changer for our company.”
ICracked’s network of 2,800 so-called iTechs work as independent contractors and must buy their own repair kits that cost $700, $1,500 and $2,000, depending on their level of inventory and parts, and include a small upcharge, he says. ICracked provides technicians—89% of whom are in the United States—with personalized marketing materials and leads to consumers needing repairs. The technicians keep all of the money charged for the repairs.