Do You Need a Website to Offer BNPL at Checkout?

A buy now, pay later provider needs a place to render its option and let the buyer begin an application. In practice, that means a hosted checkout page or a payment link tied to your own merchant account. Without a surface to show the option, there is nothing for the financing to sit on.

This surface is the single firm requirement. It is not a full marketing website, a blog, or a product catalog. A single hosted payment page can carry one offer, which is often all a service business needs.

One thing never changes: the provider decides the application. It runs its own underwriting and sets availability and terms. Because of that, PayFull has no authority, control or influence over that decision. The required pieces are a checkout surface plus a provider agreement under your own merchant account.

No full storefront is required to present a payment option. A hosted checkout or payment link does the whole job for a business selling one program. That is the core point for coaches and consultants, who do not need a browsing catalog.

Think of the difference this way. A storefront is built for browsing many products, while a payment link is built for one agreed sale. Your client already said yes on the call, so you need a way to collect payment, not a way to shop.

That said, confirm the exact current requirement with each provider before you build. Requirements can change, and only the provider's own published merchant documentation is authoritative. Do not assume a specific rule from this page — verify it at the source, as covered below.

You present a payment option by sending the buyer to a hosted checkout or payment link after the close. The sale is agreed on the call or in the chat; the link is just where the client starts the financing application.

Common paths for a service business:

• Payment link after a call. You finish the sales call, then send a link to a hosted checkout. The client opens it and sees the payment option there.
• DM close. You agree terms in the chat, then paste the same link. No storefront needed.
• Post-webinar follow-up. You message the link to warm attendees. Each person opens their own checkout.
• Checkout page on a simple site. You host one page under your own merchant account, and the link points there.

In every path the mechanic is the same: close, send the link, the client applies, the provider decides. PayFull helps you offer that financing inside your own checkout. It does not make the approval call.

For example, Affirm is one provider a coaching business may offer at checkout. Whether a given provider is available to you depends on your industry, ticket size, and the provider's underwriting outcome, so keep provider terms separate from anything PayFull does.

Financing disclosure: All financing is subject to credit approval. Availability of any given provider depends on your industry, ticket size, and underwriting outcome; not every provider is available to every merchant. PayFull is not a lender or a bank. For Affirm, loans and financing are originated by Affirm's lending partners: Cross River Bank, Sutton Bank, or Celtic Bank.

A short arithmetic example shows the shape of a plan without quoting any real terms. Keep the figures simple and consistent so the deposit and installments add up to the price.

Illustration (hypothetical): Suppose a coaching program is priced at $6,000. The client pays a deposit of $1,200 at checkout, which leaves a remaining balance of $4,800. That balance is split into 4 installments of $1,200 each.

The schedule can run on a simple interval. Imagine the first installment is charged 30 days after the start, the next at 60 days, then 90 days, and the last at 120 days. Add it up: the $1,200 deposit plus four payments of $1,200 equals the $6,000 price. These numbers are invented to show the structure, not to quote any real plan.

PayFull helps you offer financing inside your own checkout. The actual terms, schedule, and decision belong to the provider.

A contractor typically closes in person, on site, with a field-sales process. That setting raises its own questions about presenting financing at the door, and the checkout surface may look different from a coach's payment link. So the in-home flow deserves its own walkthrough.

Rather than repeat that here, see the dedicated field-sales walkthrough at /guides/how-to-offer-financing-as-a-contractor, which handles the in-home and on-site case directly. If that guide is not yet live, go to /platform/checkout for where the financing checkout happens under your own account.

The underlying rule still holds for both cases: the buyer applies, and the provider underwrites and decides. The close setting changes the logistics, not who makes the call on each application.

Have the pieces ready before the call so momentum does not stall after the close. Waiting until after the "yes" to build a checkout slows everything down.

A short setup list:

1. Merchant account. The checkout runs under your own account, so get this in place first.
2. Hosted checkout or payment link. Create the page or link you will send.
3. Provider agreement. Sign the agreement with the provider whose option you want to show.
4. Consent and disclosures. Make sure the right consent and disclosures appear at the point the buyer applies.

With these ready, the flow is quick: close, send the link, the client applies. PayFull helps you offer the financing inside that checkout, under your own agreements, while the approval itself stays with the provider.

Treat this page as a map, not a rulebook. Each provider's current requirement lives in its own published merchant documentation, and the FTC's advertising guidance is a useful reminder that claims and disclosures must be accurate. Confirm the specifics at the source before you build around them.

Check these items with the provider directly:

• Checkout requirement. Does the provider accept a hosted checkout or payment link, and in what form?
• Industry and ticket fit. Is your type of business and price range supported?
• Consent and disclosures. What must appear at the point the buyer applies?
• Availability. Not every provider is available to every merchant; confirm yours.

Above all, remember who decides. The provider runs its own underwriting and makes the call on each application. As a result, PayFull has no authority, control or influence over that outcome and does not underwrite.