Affirm and Shopify Bring Shop Pay Installments to Australia, Affirm's Return After 2023 Exit

Affirm and Shopify announced on August 27, 2026 the launch of Shop Pay Installments in Australia, a buy-now-pay-later offering powered exclusively by Affirm and integrated into the Shop Pay checkout button merchants and shoppers already use.

How the Offering Works

• Eligible shoppers can split purchases into fortnightly or monthly payments
• Approved shoppers can choose between interest-free or interest-bearing payment plans
• The total cost is shown upfront before the shopper commits to a plan
• Shopify merchants in Australia can enable Shop Pay Installments through the Shopify admin dashboard

Affirm's Return to Australia

Australia becomes the fourth market for Shop Pay Installments, following the US, Canada and the UK. Notably, this marks Affirm's return to the Australian market after it wound down its local business in February 2023, roughly a year after entering the country through a partnership with Peloton.

What This Means for Merchants and BNPL Vendors

For e-commerce merchants operating in or expanding into Australia, this expands the buy-now-pay-later options available through Shopify's native checkout, without requiring a separate third-party BNPL integration. For organizations tracking the BNPL market's maturity, Affirm's willingness to re-enter a market it previously exited is a specific data point on how the company is now weighing regional expansion risk differently than it did in its earlier, more aggressive expansion phase.