The Ultimate Sezzle Review (2023): A Pay Later Service for Online Shopping

Welcome to our ultimate Sezzle review.

If you run an online business you know how crucial it is to offer your customers the right payment solutions at checkout. Imagine offering only Sripe as the payment option for shoppers on your website, when the majority of them are from a location unable to use the solution to make payments.

The result is that you’ll lose out on potential conversions when they reach checkout. This is why a buy now pay later app like Sezzle is necessary for merchants. The Sezzle app allows you to offer your shoppers additional payment flexibility at checkout. And this payment method, unlike other options such as PayPal or debit cards, enables your customers to pay a percentage of the total amount of your product via a Sezzle loan, receive the product, and then repay what's left in installments.

What this means is that you don't have to worry about losing out on conversions because the customer is unable to pay for a product due to its cost. The result is a boost in your business' turnover.

That said, how easy is it to set up/integrate and use Sezzle? What are its pros and cons? And its major features?

All of this and more will be discussed in our Sezzle review to help you decide whether Sezzle is a great fit as a payment solution for your eCommerce business.

Let's get started.

What is Sezzle?

Sezzle is an eCommerce buy now pay later solution for receiving customer payment for a product in 4 installments over 6 weeks at 0% interest for the shopper. The goal of Sezzle is to split payments into 4 installments, which allows customers to make purchases even when they don't want to or can't afford to spend a particular amount on a specific product. This often leads to larger purchases.

That said, penalties like late fees are placed on a particular customer if they are unable to repay each installment on time. Sezzle also assumes all credit risk while the e-commerce merchant receives full payment right away.

How Does Sezzle Work?

When a shopper places an order via sezzle.com, the solution features a unique approval system that reviews the customer's account to know the type of payment plan they can offer. Most times, it'll be a first payment of 25% of the total order amount. This is called the first installment or a downpayment. The remaining amount is divided across three additional installments with each one's due date being 2 weeks apart. There are no hidden, interest, or upfront fees for the customer. The shopper only has to pay interest fees if they do not pay off the installments on time.

That said, after the customer has successfully placed an order, Sezzle pays the eCommerce merchants immediately, in full, for the order. The merchant will receive their funds and can process the order just like the customer paid completely using a credit card.

The checkout process is straightforward. All the shopper has to do is shop at an online store that offers Sezzle as a payment option, then at checkout choose Sezzle amongst the other options like PayPal or pay with a credit card, and Sezzle will work the customer through the remaining process.

As already said, Sezzle does not charge interest and they only require fees from a customer if their payment fails or they request to adjust the date of their repayments more than once for each order. Lastly, Sezzle runs a soft inquiry or credit check on all shoppers and states that this doesn't negatively affect the buyer's credit score.

Getting Started with Sezzle for Shoppers

Sezzle has a couple of requirements that the customer has to satisfy before they can begin shopping with the payment solution. Here they are:

• The shopper must be 18 years old or older.
• They must have a phone number capable of receiving text messages.
• The customer should have an email address.
• Shoppers with Sezzle must possess a non-prepaid payment method readily available. For shoppers in Canada and the United States, this can be a debit card or credit card, or bank account.

In terms of checking credit, Sezzle permits customers to use the buy now pay later solution even if they've had problems before with credit. Sezzle also won't check your customer's FICO score for evaluation.

That said, after signing up and approval, the customer can then shop with the 34,000 plus stores that offer Sezzle and then choose Sezzle at checkout when completing an order.

Getting Started for Merchants

After signing up for a Sezzle account and it is approved, you will be sent an email with your login details for setup to begin.

Next, you can log in to your Sezzle account and choose ‘Setup Checklist” to see the right instructions for integrating Sezzle into your eCommerce store. It is a best practice to start at the first step listed as some of the others are dependent on your completion of the first. Usually, the first two steps need to be completed for customers to be able to use Sezzle on your website.

There is also documentation on sezzle.com that you can use if you face issues. Using the Sezzle documentation you can pick the e-commerce platform that you use to run your business and get detailed information for the platform as well as troubleshooting steps.

It's also important to note that the steps for setting up Sezzle different e-commerce platforms differ. So you need to follow the setup checklist carefully to ensure that it is done right.

Sezzle Features

Sezzle has some amazing features, let's have a look at them in this Sezzle review:

Buy Now Pay Later

This is the primary feature of the Sezzle payment solution. Sezzle allows your customers to purchase a product with a down payment usually 25% of the total cost of the item and a loan from Sezzle covering the remaining cost. If you are registered with Sezzle as a business the solution places you on their website and the customer can log in to their Sezzle account to use the service. There's also the option of integrating Sezzle to your website so the customer at checkout can use Sezzle as a payment option rather than a credit card or PayPal to pay overtime.

Four Installment Payments (Interest-Free)

The Sezzle payment option allows the shopper to split the price of your product into 4 interest-free installments to be paid off in 6 weeks. If the customer pays all installments within the allotted time frame then they get a 0% interest charge on the loan. But late payments may attract penalty charges.

Wide Product Range

For customers, the Sezzle application provides a network of over 34,000 businesses with a broad range of offers such as footwear, clothes, jewelry, and a lot more, all available for purchase using the app. Customers can choose a product from the businesses signed up for Sezzle and the merchant will process the payment.

Featured Store

If you register for Sezzle as a merchant you can be a featured store of a particular category on the homepage of the solution. The stores are shortlisted depending on their product quality, offers, and popularity. There are also featured stores that offer general products. Due to this feature, you can expect leads and conversions from Sezzle users who browse through the website.

Payment Rescheduling

Sezzle permits customers to reschedule their payments if they are unable to repay them. While this doesn't affect receiving full payments for your product as a merchant, it acts as an incentive for customers to use the solution. That said, customers can only use 3 reschedules for an order. And apart from the initial rescheduling, the next one attracts a fee.

No Credit Damage

Sezzle allows your customers to apply for a loan with a soft credit check without affecting their credit score. The app also offers immediate approval. However, shoppers may not qualify for all purchases. Beyond the requirements already listed in this Sezzle review, eligibility is dependent on the customer's Sezzle history, previous orders, and more.

Shoppers can also request for Sezzle to report their payment history to credit bureaus by signing up to “Sezzle up” to opt for reporting. The reason for this is that a history of on-time payments can assist the shopper in building a powerful credit profile. This is also a catch to get your customers to use the payment option.

Fees for Failed or Rescheduled Payments

If the customer's payment fails Sezzle permits up to 48 hours for correction. If they missed the deadline again, the solution charges $10. Also, for rescheduling after the initial one, the customer will have to pay an additional $5 whenever they want to reschedule the payment.

Sezzle Pros and Cons

Every solution has its awesome features and not-so-good parts. So in this Sezzle review, we will be looking at the pros and cons of this buy now pay later app.

Merchant Fees

Ecommerce merchants pay transaction fees on every purchase irrespective of the service or bank they do business with. For instance, PayPal charges merchants an average rate of 3.5% for each transaction.

Sezzle charges a little above that in transaction fees with a 6% standard payment processing fee plus 30 cents per transaction. That said, Sezzle provides volume-based discounts for bigger retailers.

Though Sezzle's transaction fees are higher than the usual 3.5% transaction cost they handle all customer payments and you get paid right away in full. They also don't charge you for setting up or signing up. After signing up through the Sezzle website you'll be assigned a rate for your store.

This is typically based on the kind of products that you sell and the length of time your business has been running amongst other factors. Sezzle collects its transaction fees automatically so you don't have to worry about monthly bills.

Sezzle Ease of Use

It's straightforward to integrate Sezzle to various popular eCommerce platforms available such as WooCommerce, Opencart, Magento, Shopify, 3dcart, CommentSold, BigCommerce, Commerce Cloud, Wix, and BuyItLive. Sezzle also offers a public API that's targeted at non-platform users.

It is important to state that Sezzle currently just works with online e-commerce businesses and cannot be integrated into point-of-sale solutions in traditional stores. However, Sezzle does state that you can have your customers buy online and then pick up in-store.

Sezzle also offers quality documentation with regards to the API and how to have everything working perfectly if you are an e-commerce business that intends to provide Sezzle as a payment solution. Once that's all done, the process is quite straightforward for the customer.

Customer Support

Even though Sezzle is very easy to integrate into your online store, especially when you use eCommerce platforms, it offers adequate support. Sezzle provides an entire merchant support segment on its website. There are even in-depth walkthrough guides located in the merchant segments that provide step-by-step instructions on the best ways to integrate the service into the many popular e-commerce tools.

You can also submit a request to the Sezzle support team if you require specific assistance. There's even a pop-up chat window for help as well. So with regards to support, Sezzle is picture perfect and quite comprehensive.

Sezzle Review: Conclusion

Sezzle is another alternative payment solution that allows e-commerce and retail businesses to entice shoppers for conversion. With its simple to implement features and compelling customer terms, Sezzle adds a fresh strategy to merchants for aiding conversions. So if you're searching for innovative ways to attract customers to your eCommerce store, then you can try and encourage consumers to make bigger orders by dividing their payments and then watch Sezzle take on all the risk involved.

The great thing about this buy now pay later app amongst others seen in this Sezzle review is that you get paid in full and not in batches for your product even though the customer is paying in installments. This is one factor that makes Sezzle stand out in a sea of other alternative payment methods available.