Affirm’s latest quarter shows buy now, pay later (BNPL) moving deeper into everyday spending, where affordability depends less on financing one large purchase and more on giving consumers flexibility across a growing number of transactions.

That pattern showed up clearly in the numbers for the fiscal fourth quarter released Thursday (Aug. 27). Gross merchandise volume rose 36% year over year to $14.1 billion in the latest quarter, while transactions rose faster, up 41% to 53 million. Average order value fell 4%. Revenue increased 33% to about $1.2 billion.

Part of the lower-ticket activity came from Pay in X, Affirm’s short-term 0% installment product. Pay in X volume grew 41%, helped by large merchants funding selected offers on an ongoing basis.

CEO Max Levchin described the appeal in affordability terms during the analyst Q&A.

“Free use of money is valuable to all consumers,” he said, adding that one use case is helping a shopper fit “a considered purchase” into monthly outflows.

The merchant economics sit behind many of those 0% offers. Levchin said retailers, manufacturers and brands can absorb the financing cost when they want to complete a sale, move inventory or support product-upgrade cycles. Longer-duration 0% offers also place more weight on underwriting because the consumer isn’t supplying interest revenue to offset credit risk.

Basket size helps determine which financing option appears. A merchant with lower average order values may lean toward Pay in X, while larger purchases can support three-month or other 0% installment structures.

2 million. Card attach reached about 19% of active Affirm consumers, up nine percentage points from a year earlier.

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