Retailers report a 30% sales lift after enabling flexible payments

Merchants that enabled flexible payments saw a median 30% increase in sales, according to a MiSPay study of 1,200 retailers measured across two full quarters before and after activation.

The median is a useful headline and a poor guide. The spread between the top and bottom quartile was wide enough that the average tells a merchant almost nothing about what to expect.

Where the lift comes from

Conversion, not traffic

Almost none of the lift came from new visitors. It came from visitors who were already on the site and who previously left at the price. Conversion improvement accounted for roughly two-thirds of the total gain.

Basket size

Average order value rose 18% at the median, concentrated in categories where a single item crosses a psychological price threshold — a sofa, a laptop, a full outfit rather than a single piece.

Repeat purchase

The slowest and most durable component. Merchants in the study saw repeat purchase rates improve through the second quarter after activation, well after the initial conversion gain had flattened.

What separated the top quartile

1. Instalment pricing displayed on product and category pages, not only at checkout

2. Plan lengths configured per category rather than one global setting

3. In-store staff trained to explain the plan in one sentence

4. Returns and refunds explained in terms of the instalment plan

5. Campaign participation inside the MiSPay app during peak weeks

Merchants doing all five saw a median lift of 47%. Merchants who enabled the integration and changed nothing else saw 11%.

"We treated it as a checkout feature for a year. The quarter we treated it as a pricing feature, everything moved."

Category detail

• Home and furniture: highest basket lift, longest plan preference

• Electronics: highest absolute revenue impact, tightly tied to launches

• Fashion: highest order frequency, most sensitive to campaign timing

• Travel: strong lift, but concentrated in a narrow booking window

• Healthcare: smallest volume, best repayment performance

Method and caveats

Merchants were measured over two quarters before activation and two quarters after, with seasonal adjustment applied by category. Merchants who ran a major promotional change in the same window were excluded. The study is observational: it demonstrates association, and merchants in the top quartile also tended to invest more in merchandising overall.

The full methodology and category tables are available on request.

About MiSPay

MiSPay is a regional payments company that lets shoppers split purchases into predictable instalments and helps merchants convert more of the demand they already have.

For press enquiries, contact press@mispay.co.