Buy now, pay later with WooPayments

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) payment methods allow your customers to pay for orders over time, using a series of payments. For example, a customer could pay for a $2,000 USD product in four installments of $500. You, the merchant, would still receive the full amount immediately, minus fees of course.

BNPL services are used by a variety of businesses to increase conversion, increase average order value, and reach new customers. The BNPL providers underwrite customers, manage the installments, and collect payments, so you can focus on your own business.

Supported providers

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WooPayments supports Affirm and Afterpay. Which BNPL provider(s) you can use depends on the country you chose during the WooPayments signup process.

Account Country	Affirm	Afterpay
Australia	❌	✅
Canada	✅	✅
New Zealand	❌	✅
United Kingdom	❌	✅
United States	✅	✅
All other countries	❌	❌

For a list of the fees associated with each BNPL provider, please see our full fees page.

Enabling

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To use a BNPL method, first enable the new checkout experience, if it’s not already. During that process, you’ll be able to select Affirm and/or Afterpay in the list of additional methods.

Check the boxes for the providers you wish to enable, then click Continue. After the methods are enabled, click Go to payments settings to go back to the Payments > Settings page.

If you’ve already enabled the new checkout experience on your site, you should be able to see Affirm and/or Afterpay in the list of payment methods:

Simply check the boxes for the BNPL providers you wish to enable, then scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.

“More information needed”

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If you’re trying to enable a BNPL method and you see this popup:

… or this alert next to the payment method:

… it means that you need to provide a few more bits of information before you can enable that particular BNPL payment method.

To do that, log into your Stripe dashboard and see if any information is missing there. If it is, you’ll see an alert in the Stripe dashboard like this:

Click the Information needed button and provide whatever missing information is required.

Be sure to save after you’re done. Once Stripe has verified the information you provided, the BNPL method should automatically be enabled.

Customer experience

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After you enable Affirm and/or Afterpay, they will be available to customers on the checkout page, assuming the customer is paying in a qualifying currency.

A small promotion for Affirm and/or Afterpay will also be shown on product pages:

By clicking Learn more, customers can see a list of potential payment plans they can use during checkout. These options depend on their location, their currency, and the product price.

Checking out

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During checkout, if the customer chooses to pay with a BNPL provider, they will be taken to that provider’s website after clicking the Place Order button. There, the customer can create or log into an account with that BNPL provider.

Next, they can accept or decline the terms of the payment plan(s) offered to them. Assuming they accept the terms, they will be returned to your site with the checkout process complete.

Affirm has a video demo and some screenshots of what their customer experience looks like. Afterpay’s documentation is a bit less detailed, but the customer experience is more or less the same: they log in or create an account, choose a payment plan, and finish checking out.

Merchant experience

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Orders placed via a BNPL payment method will appear under WooCommerce > Orders and Payments > Transactions, just like orders placed with cards.

As mentioned above, you will receive the entire purchase amount immediately once the order is placed. The important thing to keep in mind is that the customers are not paying you over time, they are paying the BNPL provider over time.

You can verify this by checking your next estimated deposit under Payments > Deposits, where it will show the full amount on the way to your bank account.

Customer currency and BNPL

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Our BNPL providers do not support cross-border transactions. As such, not all of your customers will be able to pay via BNPL. Specifically, customers must be paying in the local currency of your WooPayments account country in order for them to be able to use BNPL methods.

Your account country	To use BNPL, customers must be paying in…
Australia	AUD
Canada	CAD
New Zealand	NZD
United Kingdom	GBP
United States	USD

Purchase minimums and maximums

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There are minimum and maximum amounts that each BNPL provider can be used for, which can also vary by currency. These limits are shown in the charts below.

Affirm

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Customer Country	Minimum Amount	Maximum Amount
Canada	$50 CAD	$30,000 CAD
United States	$50 USD	$30,000 USD

Afterpay

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Customer Country	Minimum Amount	Maximum Amount
Australia	$1 AUD	$2,000 AUD
Canada	$1 CAD	$2,000 CAD
New Zealand	$1 NZD	$2,000 NZD
United Kingdom	£1 GBP	£1,200 GBP
United States	$1 USD	$4,000 USD

Testing BNPL purchases

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BNPL payment methods can be tested while in test mode, just like any other payment method.

Affirm

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If you’re testing Affirm, you’ll be shown the following screen after placing your test order:

Enter your mobile phone number, click Continue, and then enter 1234 as the verification code. Next, enter a fake name and email address, click Continue, and then enter a fake birth date and Social Security Number.

Choose from one of the available payment plans and click Continue.

Finally, disable the AutoPay option on the summary page, check the terms and conditions checkbox, then click Confirm.

After confirming, you’ll be taken back to your site’s Order Received page as normal.

Afterpay

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If you’re testing Afterpay, you’ll be shown the following screen after placing your test order:

Click Authorize Test Payment to test a successful order, or Fail Test Payment to test a failed order. If you authorize the test, you’ll be taken back to your site’s Order Received page.

Refunds

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You can fully or partially refund BNPL transactions just as you would any other transaction. Each BNPL provider has a their own time periods in which the refund must be issued:

• Affirm: 120 days after the order was placed.
• Afterpay: 180 days after the order was placed.

As with other WooPayments methods, the transaction fees are not refunded to you.

Disputes

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Because customers must authenticate with their BNPL provider of choice during the purchase process, this helps reduce the risk of unauthorized payments. However, customers can still dispute BNPL transactions, e.g. if the receive faulty goods or don’t receive them at all.

Notably, the timelines for BNPL disputes can differ from those of regular card payment disputes, so we have outlined the relevant details below.

Customers must dispute the transaction within:

• Affirm: 60 days
• Afterpay: 120 days

Once a dispute has been created, you must submit evidence within:

• Affirm: 15 days
• Afterpay: 14 days

After you submit evidence, the BNPL provider will make a decision within:

• Affirm: 15 days
• Afterpay: 30 days

Aside from the timeline changes above, disputes for BNPL orders function the same as any other dispute, e.g. you can view them and submit evidence under Payments > Disputes.

Prohibited products and businesses

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Because BNPL payment methods inherently involve a third-party company, there are additional restrictions on the types of products you can sell with them. In addition to our general list of prohibited or restricted products, the restrictions below also apply.

Affirm

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• Home improvement services, including contractors
• Titled goods and auto loans, including cars, boats, and other motor vehicles
• Professional services, including legal, consulting, and accounting
• Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
• Business-to-business (B2B)
• Subscription products

Please see the full list for more details.

Afterpay

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• Alcohol
• Donations
• Pre-orders
• Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
• Business-to-business (B2B)
• Subscription products

Please see the full list for more details.

Frequently asked questions

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Here are some common questions we get about BNPL methods and their answers.

Are BNPL methods a good fit for my business?

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BNPL payment methods may be a good fit for your business if:

• You sell high-value goods or services and want to increase conversion.
• You sell low-value goods or services and want to increase average cart size.
• You’re trying to reach customers who might not have access to credit cards.
• You want to sell to customers who may not be able to pay in full right away.

However, BNPL payment methods may not be a good fit for you if:

• You sell to businesses. BNPL methods cannot be used for B2B transactions.
• You sell subscriptions. BNPL methods cannot be used for subscription products.

Do customers pay more when using BNPL methods?

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No. For example, if the price of your product is $300 and a customer purchases it using a BNPL provider, they will still only pay $300 total.

How do I switch from a BNPL extension?

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If you already use a BNPL extension from our marketplace, e.g. Affirm or Afterpay, you should disable that extension prior to activating the matching BNPL payment method in WooPayments.