Goal: K Series Parts wanted to give their customers a financing option that was both simple and aligned with their focus on providing the best customer experience possible.

With over 16 years of experience in the auto parts industry, K Series Parts has an intimate knowledge of their customers’ wants and needs.

And as they’ve watched the popularity of online shopping skyrocket in recent years, K Series has made it a priority to meet those needs. Dozens of auto parts retailers are now available to customers with a few keyboard clicks, making it critical for retailers to differentiate themselves in order to win over customers.

Chris Dye, Founder and Owner of K Series Parts, says it’s the company’s holistic consideration of consumer shopping preferences that sets them apart from the competition. “I spend a lot of time thinking about what the customer wants, and what they’ve told us over the years,” said Dye. So when K Series’ customers voiced a desire to pay for their auto parts purchases over time, the company promptly explored options to meet this need.

That’s when K Series discovered Affirm: a pay-over-time financing tool that lets shoppers pay for their purchases in pre-defined monthly installments. Founded on a mission to bring honesty to the banking industry, Affirm offers customers payment flexibility — without the hidden fees or confusing terms associated with traditional credit.

A great customer experience brings top-line results

For K Series, partnering with Affirm was a no-brainer. As a solution to help customers budget for auto part purchases, it translates into an overall better user experience. They also quickly found that customers weren’t the only ones to benefit from Affirm’s financing options — K Series sales increased to the tune of 20 percent. As a commitment transparency is central to Affirm’s offering, customers could take advantage of payment flexibility without fear of spiraling into debt.

And Affirm was not only giving customers the confidence to buy — it was allowing them to buy more. The average order value (AOV) with Affirm is over twice what it is via purchases made with PayPal or credit cards.

With an NPS score of 83+, it’s clear that shoppers appreciate Affirm’s simple, speedy, and mobile-optimized experience. It’s inherent simplicity encourages customers to return to K Series to take advantage of Affirm again and again — a trend that Dye says has translated into a notable boost in repeat business.

Integrating Affirm into their current e-commerce platform was also a painless process. Reluctant to jump through hoops for other finance options, Dye said the ease of integrating Affirm made it all the more appealing. And with K Series’ plans to transition to Magento, Dye says the fact that Affirm has a native Magento integration played a big role in the final decision.

Affirm also acts as a powerful customer acquisition tool

With the numbers to back up Affirm’s top-line impact, K Series began to incorporate as-low-as messaging into their off-site marketing, in order to attract new customers. Dye says the appeal of a financing option has proven to be a powerful customer acquisition tool through channels like Facebook and Instagram. “I believe that Affirm does give us an advantage,” Dye noted of its ability to bring in a larger customer base through its marketing potential.

The combination of Affirm’s proven ability to attract new customers, boost conversions, increase AOVs, and encourage repeat purchases, has led the financing tool to comprise nearly a quarter (23 percent) of K Series’ 2016 revenue, leading to an 18 percent increase in overall business.

In today’s marketplace, customers have a world of options available to them for any given purchase. Retailers can appeal to old and new customers, boost revenue, and create brand loyalty by offering consumer-friendly payment tools like Affirm.