Affirm Prioritizes Automation in Creating the Future of BNPL
Buy now, pay later is no longer limited to online and mobile shopping — but mobile app checkouts are coming out on top everywhere and providers are racing to create the preferred experience for users during both digital and physical purchases.
As part of its evolution, Affirm has announced its effective results from partnership with Bitrise. The companies have been working together since 2019 to automate its core mobile processes to offer payment plans both in-store and online. Affirm has also notably increased the number of updates and features within the app store from once a month to biweekly and tighten its integrations with Amazon and Walmart.
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“Buy now, pay later is the future of payments across industries,” said Edward Smith, software engineer at Affirm. “Consumers expect an experience that is accessible both online and in-store and one of the best ways. We knew that we needed our app to meet the high demands of the modern shopper, and that meant having the time and the ability to invest in user experience. With Bitrise automating our mobile processes, we have been able to expand our iOS app and provide shoppers with a seamless, and affordable, shopping experience on all channels.”
Now nearly four years into working with Bitrise, Affirm reports increasing mobile release speed by 300 percent as it expands its offering. Notably, before partnering with Bitrise, Affirm was operating on 12 Mac minis, a structure that the company said was “time-consuming and costly due to the extensive manual engineering required.”
Using Bitrise’s cloud-based solution, Affirm reports its ability to deliver consistent updates, providing consumers shopping and checkout in Affirm’s app as well as the discovery of discounts across all partnering merchants. This has also led to BNPL payment options in stores for retailers with affirm and Walmart’s point of sale capability, which allows customers to select no-interest payments when the checkout in person.
Additionally, Affirm has taken advantage of consumers having access to its app at any time by introducing its “deal awareness” feature. With the feature, users are alerted when they are nearby deals available with Affirm merchants for an elevated in-person experience.
“Whether a company sells items directly to consumers or, in Affirm’s case, helps consumers afford and get the best deal possible on products, they are going to have to have the ability to provide that service through a mobile app,” said Barnabas Birmacher, chief executive officer of Bitrise. “From an app development perspective, this means continuously introducing new functions and features to keep up with the ever-changing retail landscape. Our work with Affirm allows them to bypass time-consuming manual processes so that they can introduce innovations and stay one step ahead of competitors.”
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