Barbara Malisz-TalhaPayment processors are growing in numbers bringing newer and easier payment methods that benefit both buyers and sellers. To respond to that emerging popularity, large marketplaces and other sales channels continuously update their payment gateway offers.
When it comes to Afterpay, Amazon does not support this type of payment which might come as both a surprise and disappointment to users. However, not all is lost since there’s a workaround to make it happen.
In this article, we’ll show how Afterpay works and how you can successfully use it when shopping on Amazon. We’ll also review other ‘buy now, pay later’ payment methods that can be availed on Amazon.
Lastly, we’ll show how sellers can integrate both Amazon and Afterpay into their QuickBooks Online.
To find out how multichannel integration can help your e-commerce business, sign up for a free trial or book a demo.
Contents:
2. How does the Afterpay payment method work?
3. Can I pay with Afterpay on Amazon?
4. Does Amazon offer other ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ payment methods?
5. Amazon and Afterpay in QuickBooks Online
What is Afterpay?
Afterpay is a payment gateway based on a buy now pay later model of financing. In other words, you can purchase a product or service and make repayments at a later date.
Afterpay lets you avail of its services when you shop online and in-store. For online purchases, you need to create an Afterpay account. For brick-and-mortar stores, additionally, you need to install the Afterpay app on your mobile phone, where you set up an Afterpay card to use either with Apple Pay or Google Pay at the checkout.
While Afterpay doesn’t perform a credit check when you first sign-up, it conducts what is called a soft credit check. This helps them understand your financial situation with regard to approving a new application. The soft credit check won’t affect your credit score.
Additionally, once approved, using Afterpay buy now pay later services won’t affect your credit score.
Afterpay provides 2 services, Afterpay Pay-in-4 and Afterpay Pay Monthly. The Pay Monthly model can be applied to orders valued over $400 with payments spread over 6 or 12 months. However, this offer includes the annual percentage rate. It’s a special offering different from the standard Afterpay payments of Pay-in-4. In this article, we’ll concentrate on the Pay-in-4 option only.
Find out how to increase your Afterpay limit and what the highest limit is.
How does the Afterpay payment method work?
Afterpay lets you split bigger payments into smaller, more manageable installments, and pay them back over time in adherence to the agreed payment schedule.
At the point of purchase, your order gets an instant approval decision. It’s important to note that not all orders are approved. This depends on several factors, some of them being:
- Sufficient funds on your card to cover the first installment, usually made at the point of purchase;
- The period of time you’ve been using Afterpay;
- The amount of money you need to repay;
- The amount of the purchase you’re trying to make;
- The number of ‘open’ Afterpay orders you currently have.
Afterpay Pay-in-4 payments, as the name suggests, are split into 4 installments. The first installment is usually paid at the time of purchase. If you’d like to place an order that exceeds the Afterpay’s allowance, you might be charged a larger amount when you order (in other words, your first installment charged to your card or bank account will be bigger than the remaining ones).
The usual payment schedule offers installments every 2 weeks, which closes the entire repayment in a 6-week period. You can always choose to repay earlier than the scheduled due date. Otherwise, the money will be automatically debited from your bank account, credit card, or debit card on the due dates. So, once the system is set up, the repayments are fully automated.
Afterpay fee on late payments
You don’t pay any interest on the Afterpay Pay-in-4 financing service. This means you can keep using the Afterpay payment method and pay 0% additional interest and fees as long as you make payments on time.
However, when you’re late on repayments, you’ll be charged a late fee. It’ll be applied only as one late fee per installment, and the total amount of late fees per order won’t exceed 25% of the initial order amount (this capping is applicable to the US).
Learn what might be the reasons your Afterpay account is frozen.
Can I pay with Afterpay on Amazon?
Amazon is the largest global online marketplace so it’d be reasonable for consumers to expect Afterpay-supported payments on Amazon. As we’ve mentioned at the beginning, there isn’t an option to pay directly with Afterpay at the Amazon checkout, though you can use a clever workaround to use your Afterpay Pay-in-4 orders on Amazon.
So what’s the trick? Afterpay users can open a one-time credit card with Afterpay, which works like any other card when shopping online. So you check out normally, and the purchase goes to your Afterpay account.
Find out what stores accept Afterpay and if you can buy groceries with Afterpay.
How does the Afterpay single-use payment work on Amazon?
Now let’s look at the Afterpay single-use payment in detail and see what steps you need to make to purchase products on Amazon with Afterpay:
- Open your Afterpay app, and click on Amazon in the ‘Shop’ tab.
- Pick your products and add them to your cart.
- Enter your shipping and account details.
- When you reach the payments page, select ‘Add a Payment Method’.
- Choose ‘Add a Credit or Debit Card’.
- The button at the bottom of the app screen labeled ‘Buy now. Pay later’ will activate.
- Untick ‘Set as default payment method’ and click the ‘Buy Now’ button.
- Afterpay will fill out the credit card fields, and you can place your order.
Because it’s a single-use payment, you need to be careful not to set your Afterpay card as a default, otherwise, Amazon will attempt to charge future orders to the same card, which will be declined.
It’s a neat workaround and means that while Amazon doesn’t officially offer Afterpay, you can safely use your Afterpay account for Amazon purchases.
The above method is given by Afterpay itself, so you can be reassured that the payments will be made safely and securely according to Afterpay’s policies.
Does Amazon offer other ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ payment methods?
Amazon has many options that let you buy products now and pay later with an installment plan.
Firstly, it offers its native plan called Amazon Monthly Payments, which is available upon eligibility and only for selected items. Secondly, it supports some buy now pay later options that are integrated at the checkout like Affirm. And lastly, there are those payment processors that give you an option of a single-use credit card that works on Amazon, while still availing deferred payments such as Afterpay or Klarna.
Amazon Monthly Payments
Amazon offers its own Amazon Monthly Payments system for selected products only. You can check which items qualify for this financing on the product detail page. You’ll also be able to see it at the checkout.
The plan is divided into 4 payments, with the initial down payment and the remaining 3 installments, over a period of 90 days. There’s no interest or any other financial charges for Amazon Monthly Payments.
This offer is available only for selected buyers at Amazon’s discretion. While it takes into account your purchase history with Amazon and the item price, there’s no guarantee on who will and who won’t be approved by Amazon for its Monthly Payments system, for a specific order.
Payment with Affirm on Amazon
Amazon does offer the Affirm payment option at the checkout, so there’s no need to look for workarounds, just simply click Affirm when placing an order.
Affirm gives you a flexible payment schedule with installments ranging from 3 to 48 months. You can pay in 4 installments and with this financing plan, you don’t attract any fees.
If you wish to divide your payments monthly, a simple interest (up to 36%) rather than a compound one applies, which means that at the checkout you’ll be able to see your order total with all the interest clearly stated upfront.
Payment with Klarna on Amazon
Making online payments with Klarna on Amazon follows the same concept as using Afterpay on Amazon.
First, you need to log into your Klarna app and from there you choose Amazon as an online shopping option. Once you add your items to the cart, go to the checkout page and click Pay with K. This will allow you to make purchases on Amazon using your Klarna account, splitting your payments into 4 installments.
Amazon and Afterpay in QuickBooks Online
As a retailer, you want to offer as many sales channels and payment gateways that make sense for your business and provide a good choice to your customers. That’s why having Amazon and Afterpay as parts of your offering is common, especially for e-commerce stores.
Integrating Amazon and Afterpay can be done by two separate software solutions, but if you keep expanding the channels, the best strategy is to employ a single tool that acts as a bridge for all your platforms.
Synder Sync provides the largest number of integrations between your chosen accounting software, QuickBooks Online for example, and more than 25 sales channels and payment gateways. With Synder, you don’t pay for each platform you connect to but for the number of transactions. This makes sense, as the more transactions you have, the more money your business makes. So you aren’t getting ‘punished’ for trying to expand your business by adding new platforms.
Synder Sync gives a competitive advantage to syncing your transactional data by the use of smart rules, categorization, product mapping, rollback, duplicate detection, and many more features that make bookkeeping easier. On top of that, it offers two sync modes, per transaction and daily summary, so you can tailor your software to your accounting style, not the other way around.
Afterpay payment on Amazon: Closing thoughts
Afterpay and Amazon don’t have a straightforward integration, but with the help of the Afterpay app, you can easily browse Amazon and avail of Afterpay’s split payment option. This gives confidence and security in processing your payments since it’s Afterpay supported.
If you’re an Amazon seller, you can adequately sync both Amazon and Afterpay transactional data into QuickBooks Online using Synder. This helps you treat your business as one ecosystem, bringing all the transactions into one place.
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