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With the consumer's spending increase at the beginning of the year and online shopping continuing to expand across all demographic groups businesses are faced with more potential and greater competition for consumers' dollars. This means that they must find new ways to cater to the demands of customers by giving them more opportunities to buy from your brand or site. A great place to start is the checkout process -looking for opportunities to simplify this crucial last step in the sale and provide payment options for your customers which will improve their customer experience.

A trend that's rapidly gained popularity in shopping online includes the "Buy Now and Pay Later" (BNPL) option when you the checkout. BNPL is a payment option that permits shoppers to divide the price of their purchase into reasonable installments distributed over time- in some cases in a couple of weeks and in others over multiple months.

Pay later, buy now is on the rise

More consumers are now making use of pay-over-time payment options in the event that they become readily available. The year 2023 saw online retailers experienced a dramatic growth in sales made through BNPL and the volume rising 42.5 percentage over the previous year. This means that BNPL put some $16.6 billion on merchant books in the last couple of months of the year and this trend Adobe expects to continue until 2024.

About 93.3 million consumers are predicted to utilize BNPL in 2024 according to EMarketer and American Banker reported that the BNPL market in the US could reach as much up to $8.3 billion before 2028. BNPL is being embraced more and more by online retail giants, like Amazon.com -- which will further accelerate its expansion and making the option far more popular with consumers who shop online.

That means that BNPL an option that businesses must consider when competing in a crowded online marketplace.

Offering buy now, make payment later: Some things to think about

Incorporating BNPL choices for checkouts earlier rather than later gives merchants more opportunity to capture new customers and establish a long-term connection.

If a retailer doesn't have an BNPL option at the checkout point, it could be the perfect time to add one to the menu. For merchants who do offer it, adding the BNPL option more prominent on their websites, specifically during checkout or by announcing the availability of the option through advertising can help to make their brands stand out and increase customer experience clients.

The more prominent the BNPL option is displayed on an online store's website, and the sooner they advertise the service via email and social channels and social media, the more likely they are to want to know more -- helping the seller bring more customers to their website to complete the sale.

BNPL will allow merchants to expand their appeal to customers who want to buy now, but want to handle the flow of cash without credit. The ability to divide the cost of a purchase into say, four interest-free payments each two weeks, buyers are able to purchase what they want quickly. Some BNPL service providers, including Affirm provide longer terms of a few months to up to three years on large carts or expensive products.

Although adding yet another payment option on the backend of an ecommerce website might be a daunting task for small-scale merchants with limited time to complete the task, there are options available with quick and easy application that could simplify the whole process for the merchant. As an example, retailers are often able to benefit from pre-built ecommerce integrations, such as the Affirm Payments extension the easy addition of an BNPL payment option to their existing checkout page.

Advantages of offering buy now, pay later on your Woo store

What advantages do the BNPL integration provide? First, an integration will streamline the buying process for the growing variety of shoppers who prefer to pay over the course of time. In addition, keeping customers on your site and moving towards checkout is essential, especially for younger shoppers who are accustomed to internet-based shopping. Actually, it is reported by the National Retail Federation reports that more than 50% (46%) of Gen Z respondents consider a effortless checkout process to be essential to the purchasing experience.

An important consideration for the integration is how it will affect the buyer. It is essential that customers is able to view their options for payment and go through the approval process without having to go to a separate website. Through a pre-built integration, merchants make the process as direct and painless as possible to the customer, so the choice doesn't get impeding making a sale.

A smooth checkout experience could assist in reducing abandonment of carts. Recent Baymard Institute metastudy of 49 research reports revealed that the cart abandonment rate still hovers around 70 percent which has not changed significantly over the past decade. Among the top reasons that carts are abandoned is a checkout process that was difficult or lengthy (22 percent of the time) and also the site did not offer enough payment options (responsible to 13% cart abandonments). Through the tightly-integrated BNPL solution, retailers can solve both customers' concerns in one go.

How to choose a buy today, pay later service

The choice of a BNPL supplier that matches your needs as a business and with customer needs is essential to determine the most suitable match. Affirm, for instance, Affirm provides custom payment solutions for merchants -they can offer both long- and short-term options as well as zero-interest options. By offering payments that are in line with consumer needs and price points, merchants can increase affordability for consumers and even make a sale against competitors.

One of the unique features offered by Affirm is their Adaptive Checkout technology, which provides dynamically the most appropriate ways to pay your customers dependent on each product's cost and price of your cart. Personalization is the theme of the online game Affirm customizes the time length and the APR of each purchase by providing several appropriate options for paying over time to customers, all within one frictionless experience.

What can you do to let the customers you have already and those who are likely to purchase from you know about the BNPL choice before they make their purchase? Based on the market you are targeting, you may want to promote it on social media platforms. Retail Dive says that 85% of the customers' purchase decisions are influenced via social media. So advertising the availability of BNPL on these platforms could give you an edge. If you're targeting Gen Z, know that 45 percent of respondents identified TikTok as well as Instagram as the top platforms in influencing their purchase decisions.

With summer often a slower period for business and businesses, it's a great time for retailers to work on getting BNPL operational on their site, before it gets busy. Back to School rush signals that the busiest months leading up to the winter holidays. It offers a chance to make thoughtful decisions regarding vendors, resolve any technical issues, and ramp up an effective marketing campaign that announces the introduction of BNPL as a new payment method that is available during check-out.

Giving the BNPL option during checkout, and publicizing it via social media can change the game for merchants looking to capture more online spend--and outplay the competition.

Do you want to incorporate flexible payment to your payment process? Apply to Affirm for a start and then use the Affirm Payments extension for pay-over-time through your checkout.

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*Payment options offered by Affirm will be subject to a credit check, may not be available all over the world, and are offered by the lending partners listed below: affirm.com/lenders.