See how Afterpay's merchant BNPL platform works: Pay-in-4 checkout, Shopify and Stripe integrations, fees, and settlement times for ecommerce businesses.
Category
Ecommerce
Pricing
Afterpay does not publicly disclose merchant transaction fees; it charges a fixed fee plus a percentage of each transaction, with the exact rate set in each merchant's individual agreement, deducted before online settlement or invoiced separately (via direct debit) for in-store purchases.
Afterpay is Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen's buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platform, founded in Sydney, Australia in 2014 and owned by Block, Inc. (formerly Square) since a 2022 acquisition. For merchants, Afterpay is a checkout payment option that lets shoppers split a purchase into four interest-free installments over six weeks (Pay-in-4) or longer monthly installments, while the merchant is paid upfront and Afterpay absorbs consumer credit and collection risk. Businesses add Afterpay through certified plugins for platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, or through payment gateways such as Stripe, Square, and Adyen, or via a direct API for custom integrations. A Business Hub dashboard gives merchants order management, settlement reporting, and audience/behavioral insights, and Afterpay also offers on-site messaging widgets and in-app advertising placement inside its own shopper app. Afterpay markets itself to retailers, from small SMB shops to large enterprise brands, as a way to convert price-sensitive shoppers, particularly Millennial and Gen Z consumers.
Key Features
Pay-in-4 Checkout — Shoppers split a purchase into four interest-free installments over six weeks, added as a payment option at merchant checkout.
Ecommerce Platform Integrations — Certified plugins for Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, plus payment gateways like Stripe, Square, and Adyen.
Business Hub Dashboard — Centralized dashboard for order management, settlement reporting, and audience and behavioral insights.
Developer API — Direct API and developer documentation for merchants building bespoke integrations beyond the certified plugin list.
On-Site Messaging Widgets — Dynamic checkout messaging that highlights installment pricing to boost conversion.
In-App Advertising — Merchants can advertise inside Afterpay's own shopper app to reach its buy-now-pay-later customer base.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Deep library of certified integrations (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, Salesforce Commerce Cloud) plus payment-gateway support (Stripe, Square, Adyen) that minimizes custom development
Merchants are paid upfront while Afterpay absorbs consumer credit and collection risk
Business Hub dashboard centralizes order management, settlement, and performance reporting
Backed by Block, Inc. (formerly Square), giving it financial stability and synergy with Square's POS and payments ecosystem
Cons
Exact merchant fees are not published publicly and require a signed merchant agreement to see the fixed-plus-percentage rate
Adds a second party and dependency to checkout and settlement rather than acting as a pure payment processor
Best suited to consumer retail checkouts, less relevant for B2B software, services, or non-transactional businesses
In-store fees are invoiced and collected via direct debit separately from the point-of-sale payment, adding a reconciliation step