BigCommerce, Affirm Expand Partnership for Adaptive Checkout BNPL Solution

Open Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) eCommerce platform BigCommerce has expanded its partnership with Affirm, giving its merchants access to Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout buy now, pay later (BNPL) product.

BigCommerce’s platform can be used in both B2B and B2C settings, and clients will be able to show customers different payment options that reflect “real-time underwriting decisions,” according to a Tuesday (Aug. 16) press release.

Customers will have the option to make payments every two weeks or once a month, and purchases can range from $50 to $17,500. Per the release, Affirm will keep with its policy of not charging late fees or other “hidden” costs.

Mark Rosales, vice president of payments at BigCommerce, said that younger consumers in particular are “demanding” greater transparency providers of financial products.

He continued, “Affirm’s scale and reliability, combined with the unparalleled flexibility and transparency they offer consumers, make them an obvious choice and great pay-over-time solution for our merchant network.”

Merchants offering Affirm have indicated that order values grow by as much as 85%, on average, and repeat-customer purchases increase by about 20%, per the release. Affirm Vice President Scott Williams said the company’s own research indicates that two-thirds of customers plan to use a BNPL service this year.

“Now, tens of thousands of merchants on BigCommerce’s platform can offer Affirm to their customers,” Williams said. “Doing so will not only help them better serve their customers but will also help them increase sales in the process.”

One of the benefits Affirm touts for merchants is that the burden of collecting overdue payments falls on Affirm. The risk that comes with underwriting appears to have troubled Wall Street investors of late, with Affirm Holdings shares falling considerably since peaking in November.

See also: Affirm CEO: Recession Will Prove Our Underwriting Smarts

Nevertheless, founder Max Levchin is reportedly confident that the company will underwrite more customers than any bank will, according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal.

“I can swear on a stack of Bibles or your preferred book of choice, until we get through a full recession, I will get partial credit when I show the numbers that I said I will,” Levchin told the Journal. “But once we’re back in a rapidly expanding economy and we’re still here, still lending money, still controlling our delinquencies, I think I’ll get full recognition.”