Antom Partners With Affirm to Bring Flexible Pay-Over-Time Options to US Merchants

Antom, the global merchant payment and digitisation platform operated by Ant International, has announced a strategic partnership with Affirm to integrate the popular buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) service into its network for merchants operating in the United States. This collaboration provides U.S. merchants with a streamlined way to offer a trusted pay-over-time solution to their customers at checkout, enhancing both consumer choice and purchasing power.

Beginning this month, merchants utilizing Antom’s payment infrastructure can seamlessly incorporate Affirm as a checkout option. The integration is designed to deliver greater transparency and flexibility for shoppers, allowing eligible customers to select customized biweekly or monthly payment plans. A core pillar of Affirm’s consumer appeal is its upfront pricing model, which displays the full cost of a purchase immediately with no late fees or hidden charges. This transparency has historically fostered high levels of consumer confidence and repeat engagement, with industry data from Affirm indicating that approximately 96% of its transactions originate from repeat users.

Gary Liu, CEO of Antom and Senior Vice President of Ant International, emphasized the strategic value of the partnership for merchants aiming to optimize their checkout conversions. According to Liu, commercial enterprises are continuously searching for payment solutions that effectively support top-line growth while maintaining simple integration processes and high customer familiarity. By welcoming a recognizable industry leader like Affirm onto the Antom platform, merchants gain a powerful tool designed to convert casual website browsers into paying buyers.

Implementing the new payment feature has been designed for operational efficiency. Merchants can enable Affirm directly through the Antom portal via a straightforward setup procedure. For consumers, selecting Affirm at checkout triggers a rapid eligibility assessment. Leveraging real-time underwriting technology, Affirm tailors each approved financing offer specifically to the individual purchase. The available financing terms span purchases from $35 up to $30,000, with repayment schedules extending anywhere from 30 days to 36 months. Furthermore, the partnership enables Antom merchants to provide consumers with attractive promotional financing structures, including specific six-month interest-free payment options through Affirm.

Steve McPhee, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Affirm, highlighted the mutual benefits of the collaboration and the expanding preference among payment platforms to integrate honest, transparent financial terms. McPhee noted that payment platforms increasingly recognize that merchants perform better when their customers are given the flexibility to pay over time without predatory or opaque fee structures. By launching with Antom’s growing U.S. merchant base, Affirm secures a significant new distribution channel, while Antom’s extensive global footprint opens substantial avenues for future collaborative expansion.

Looking ahead, the strategic partnership is not restricted to the United States market. Both companies have confirmed plans to extend the availability of this integrated payment service to customers in the United Kingdom later this year. Beyond the UK rollout, Antom and Affirm share a broader roadmap aimed at bringing flexible, transparent pay-over-time capabilities to additional international markets as the collaboration scales globally.