Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) company Affirm is coming back to Australia three years after it left the country. This time, it is partnering with Shopify to energize a BNPL market that has seen more sluggish growth over the past few years.
Affirm has partnered with Shopify since 2021, offering Shop Pay Installments to millions of shoppers across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom who have collectively already made billions of dollars in purchases.
The latest foray into the Australian market is both a comeback and an expansion. Affirm left Australia in 2023 shortly after unfavorable macroeconomic conditions prompted the company to lay off 19 percent of its workforce. Shop Pay Installments are now available in Australia.
“Australians helped shape Buy Now, Pay Later as we know it, which is why we expect more from it than most,” said Nitin Kashid, Australia country manager at Affirm, in a recent statement. “In partnership with Shopify, Affirm built Shop Pay Installments for the future—a way to pay with even more flexible terms and no late fees, ever.”
With Shop Pay Installments, eligible shoppers can split their purchases into bi-weekly or monthly payments. If approved, shoppers can choose from interest-free or interest-bearing payment plans and see exactly what they’ll pay before committing.
Affirm said it is giving businesses of every size another way to lift conversion and grow cart sizes, with more than 90 percent of Affirm purchases in North America coming from repeat customers. It underwrites every transaction individually, making a real-time credit decision and only approving shoppers after an assessment of their ability to repay. Although the platform does not charge late fees, missing a payment can affect a user’s credit and limit future access.
Affirm founder and CEO Max Levchin wrote about the macroeconomic conditions that prompted the layoffs in a 2023 shareholder letter, citing higher benchmark rates at the U.S. Federal Reserve which dampened consumer spending and increased the cost of borrowing. “Everything changed in mid-2022,” said Levchin, who also co-founded Paypal.
A lot has also changed since Affirm’s return to Australia. Several BNPL platforms have also left the country since 2022, according to a report from the Guardian, leaving only four major players led by Afterpay with 4.5 million. Yearly BNPL spending also reportedly slowed to $1.5 billion in 2025 from $3 billion a year in the late 2010s.
