Will Affirm's new strategy keep it afloat?

The BNPL provider announced that it will offer its solution on Fiserv point-of-sale technologies, including the Carat commercial system and Clover POS devices at brick-and-mortar stores. Visa announced a similar partnership with FIS last week.

Why should we care?
While Affirm’s CEO said he wouldn’t “bet against the American consumer” in the face of rising economic uncertainty, the company’s diversified strategy does hedge the company’s losses against a steeper decline in ecommerce activity: Expanding to physical retail offers Affirm a larger potential market. But Fiserv’s deal with Affirm is not exclusive, meaning other BNPL competitors can adopt the same approach. And, while Affirm hopes to become the BNPL provider of choice for younger consumers, PayPal is still the largest player on the scene, holding just under 50% of the market (as compared to Affirm’s 12%). And banks like Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, and U.S. Bancorp are now entering BNPL, too. Affirm has an advantage in market adoption and existing partnerships when compared to big banks’ fledgling initiatives, but the latter may have an advantage in being able to sell BNPL products to their existing client bases, including older demographics. Affirm’s ambitions certainly ride on the ultimate success of strategic partnerships with networks like Fiserv’s, but the company is also beholden to larger forces like the health of the U.S. economy, in addition to the plans of bigger fish in the financial sector.