Apple and Amazon have put embedded finance back in the spotlight this week. While Apple is preparing to launch a new financing program for its devices, Amazon Business is renewing attention around its existing partnership with Affirm. Such a synchronization among Big Tech players underscore the growing role of installment payments as an integrated part of digital commerce.
Apple is set to launch Apple Upgrade in the United States on July 28, introducing a lease-to-own financing program powered by Klarna. According to Reuters, the service will initially cover most iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches, allowing customers to either spread payments over monthly installments or purchase it outright. Furthermore, in the first case, clients get the flexibility benefit to upgrade to a newer device before the lease ends. The program is expected to replace new enrollments in Apple’s existing iPhone Upgrade Program and standard financing options, simplifying the purchasing journey while also encouraging more frequent hardware upgrades.
Another tech giant, Amazon has been reaping the benefits of BNPL sales for a while now. Amazon Business has recently published educational content explaining how business customers can use Affirm to finance eligible purchases, outlining installment options, repayment terms and practical procurement scenarios. Since no new commercial agreement changes are visible for the Amazon Business-Affirm partnership first introduced in 2023, PaySpace Magazine Global team believes the new material might reflect the platform’s effort to increase awareness and adoption of the BNPL payment option to boost sales in times of yet another global uncertainty making lots of goods unaffordable for customers.
Taken together, the two developments suggest that embedded finance is entering a more mature stage. Rather than treating buy now, pay later (BNPL) as a promotional feature, major commerce platforms are increasingly positioning financing as a built-in component of the purchasing experience.
The distinction is important. Earlier waves of BNPL growth focused on signing as many individual merchants as possible. Today, the strategic value increasingly lies in becoming part of the platform itself, where financing can be offered seamlessly across millions of transactions without requiring merchants to negotiate separate integrations.
Apple’s approach illustrates how financing can support broader ecosystem objectives. By lowering the upfront cost of premium devices and simplifying upgrade cycles, the company can encourage customer retention while maintaining demand for high-end hardware. As an embedded finance representative, Klarna, meanwhile, gains exposure to one of the world’s largest consumer technology ecosystems through deep integration rather than standalone merchant relationships.
Amazon Business highlights a different application. By educating business customers about installment financing for procurement, Amazon is normalizing pay-over-time options in B2B purchasing, an area where flexible payment terms can improve cash flow management for small businesses while increasing purchasing flexibility.
Meanwhile, Google has taken the trend just a notch further by integrating both Affirm and Klarna to not just any checkout, but its Gemini app and Google search functionality within the AI Mode. This move is setting some agentic commerce prerequisites already, though the agentic payments technology is still very much emerging.
What does it tell us about the competition in the BNPL services sector? As the largest commerce platforms deepen relationships with selected financing partners, opportunities to compete at the platform level become increasingly limited.
Instead, BNPL challengers may need to differentiate through industry-specific solutions, regional expertise or value-added financial services rather than broad merchant acquisition. For example, there’s a bunch of healthcare-focused BNPL solutions (e.g. Cherry, CareCredit, Sunbit), home improvement BNPL tools (GreenSky, Wisetack), or even agricultural BNPL providers optimizing their payout schedules for harvest cycles rather than monthly payments typical for office salaries (AGCO Finance, CNH Capital).
In addition, smaller BNPL providers might find it harder to compete in the market with the regulation of BNPL practices getting more stringent. Though regulation is welcome in credit business to adequately protect consumers, fintech players now face new challenges. In this context, here’s what the experts particularly flag:
“Graduating from its teenage years, BNPL is now entering adulthood. In this era, consumers will still expect fast and flexible credit, embedded seamlessly into the apps they already use.
Now, providers will need to capture better customer data, run more robust checks, deliver consistent disclosures, and maintain clear records across every channel through which BNPL is offered. All of this must happen accurately and in real-time, without adding friction to the customer journey.”
Stiven Muccioli, CEO at BKN301
