Installment payment and buy now pay later (BNPL) software facilitates a business’ ability to offer customers the option to purchase products and services over time through a set number of regular payments. Businesses embed these solutions into their online store or integrate them with their invoicing software to offer flexible payment options. Because of the flexibility associated with installment payments, these solutions enable a business to potentially attract new customers and sell more high-priced items within their e-commerce store. This type of software can also benefit marketplace providers such as Etsy or eBay, which use BNPL to allow their sellers to receive installment payments.
These tools need to integrate with e-commerce platforms to provide options for installment payment at checkout and with payment gateways to process payments. Furthermore, all payment data needs to be transferred to financial systems, which requires integration with accounting software.
To qualify for inclusion in the Installment Payment and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) category, a product must:
- Provide the option to pay for purchases by choosing from multiple installment plans
- Manage the amount, timeframe, and number of installments available
- Define multiple installment plans that can be assigned to different products and services
- Apply appropriate interest and fees if the installments are late or unpaid
- Send personalized payment notifications to both customers and businesses
- Integrate with e-commerce platforms, payment gateways, or invoicing software
- Analyze the impact of buy now pay later options on customer satisfaction
- Comply with security and privacy compliance regulations such as PCI DSS