To make partnering with Affirm quick and easy, some prep work by several members of your team will help ensure a successful implementation and launch process.

While your developers work with our team to get Affirm running on your site, it’s important to educate others in your company—particularly customer-facing, finance, and marketing employees—about the Affirm process and procedures. Take time to review the following materials with your team to make the most of activating your partnership with Affirm.

1. Familiarize yourself and your team with the settlement process.

The first question many retailers have after implementing Affirm is, “When do I get paid?” At the beginning of each day, we calculate the settlement total, or the sum of all the previous day’s charges. If the balance is positive, we communicate that to our banking partner, Cross River Bank. At the end of that same day, Cross River Bank initiates an ACH transfer of funds. The following day we will generate and deliver a report, and you will receive payment between one and three business days after the ACH transfer was initiated. See examples and details about the settlement process.

We generate daily, weekly, and monthly reports on settlements to help your business keep track of the books. There are two ways to access settlement reports: merchant dashboard or email. It’s important to note that there are two different dates shown on the report: the date the settlement was initiated and the date the charge was processed. Need more details? Check out this page on settlement reporting.

2. Educate your customer support staff on Affirm’s consumer-facing FAQs.

Once launched, your customer service team will probably get a lot of questions about Affirm. In order to set the Affirm partnership up for success, your team should know the common questions and be able to answer them effectively. We have a list of Frequently Asked Questions that covers everything, including:

• Why buy with Affirm?

• Does Affirm do a credit check, and how does it impact my credit score?

• Why was I denied financing by Affirm?

• Will I see how much interest I am paying prior to accepting my loan?

• How do refunds work?

Review the questions with your team, so everyone feels confident to answer customer questions should they arise. For any questions that are specific to a user's loan or application, you can direct shoppers to affirm.com/help, which has a detailed FAQ as well as a portal for them to reach out to our customer care team.

3. Understand how to market Affirm while in compliance with federal laws.

Affirm can be a powerful marketing tool if messaged correctly and legally. We suggest marketing Affirm as early in the customer journey as possible, including in offsite marketing, banner ads, and on product pages. SuperATV saw a 333% increase in sales volume with Affirm after implementing product page messaging.

However, credit products are federally regulated, which means certain restrictions and guidelines must be followed when marketing Affirm. Before launch, your team should know the best practices for marketing Affirm and understand how to abide by the regulations. The Truth in Lending Act sometimes requires disclosures about terms and fees be presented with an advertisement. You need to include a disclosure when mentioning one or more of the following “trigger” terms:

• Number of payments (e.g., 6 payments)

• Period of repayment (e.g., 6 months)

• Monthly payment amount (e.g., $60/month)

• Existence of a down payment

See more examples and learn more about compliant marketing with Affirm.

Integration is just the first step in getting Affirm ready on your site. Each of the three points above is critical to ensuring Affirm and your business will get started on the right foot. We are here to help! If you have any questions, please reach out to merchanthelp@affirm.com.