Buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Splitit has formed a partnership with cloud-based payments provider Checkout.com, the companies announced Monday (Nov. 7).
According to a news release provided to PYMNTS, the partnership will see Splitit offer “an integrated installment payments solution, as well as reselling Splitit through its network of merchants and marketplaces.”
In addition, the partnership will see Checkout.com’s merchants and marketplace adopt Splitit’s Installment-as-a-Service platform, making it easier for them to adopt the Splitit solution.
Splitit debuted its Installments-as-a-Service platform in May. The tool relies on consumer credit on payment cards to streamline the checkout experience embedded in merchants’ existing payment flows. It lets consumers with an available balance on their credit cards use the service with no application, interest, or fees and no change to their credit report.
“The appeal of Splitit is that any consumer that has used their card to make a purchase will intuitively find our solution an easier way to pay,” CEO Nandan Sheth said at the time.
“The first phase of our plan is to bring our white-label solution to acquirers, merchants, and independent software vendors (ISVs) in the U.S. But our future vision is to scale globally, offering a consistent experience for cross-border and global markets,” Sheth said.
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While some consumers have gotten overextended with BNPL loans, the broader trend is consumers becoming smarter about their installment-payment use as the year winds down, PYMNTS noted in a conversation with Sheth recently.
Among shoppers using BNPL more strategically are those with available open-to-buy on revolving credit cards but who recognize the benefits of using installments instead.
“For users with access to revolving credit, their open-to-buy is going to shrink a little bit, but they’re still not going to be willing to pay interest,” Sheth told PYMNTS. “They’re going to lean more toward, ‘I have credit … how can I leverage that credit without paying interest to extend my payments?’ Splitit and others that are trying to do something similar, I think we become a little bit more attractive for that segment and give them a unique way to leverage existing credit.”