What are retail financing companies?
Retail financing companies offer the provision of consumer credit at a retailer’s point of sale.
Instead of the customer seeking external finance or relying on credit cards, the retailer will offer a credit administration system at the consumer checkout. This is usually done by integrating with a third party POS retail finance platform.
Loans provided usually take the form of an installment program, where the consumer needs to make regular monthly or biweekly payments for a set period of time.
Also referred to as POS (point of sale) finance.
What are the main differences between retail financing companies?
There are several different types of retail financing companies, varying by what they offer as part of their retail finance platform.
These are some of the main differences between the various retail financing companies:
- White labeling – While some solutions will take you to their website to arrange your consumer credit, others offer a white-labeled solution, where consumer finance remains part of the retailer’s branding.
- The Lender – Retail financing companies can either be the lender, such as Affirm and Klarna or connect the consumer to a lending institution or bank, such as Jifiti.
- Repayment structure – The installment loan repayment structure differs substantially between solutions, some offering zero interest but a one-off fee.
- Integration – Certain financing companies require heavy integration at the retailers point of sale, whereas others offer a zero integration platform.
- In-Store & Online – The majority of solutions can be applied online only, while a few are applied in-store only. Solutions that can be applied to instore and online are more unusual.
