There are major differences between customer/shopper prequalification (shown prior to checkout) vs qualification (also known as approval, which is shown at the point of sale).
Prequalification provides your customers an estimated amount they can spend on your site. This occurs prior to checkout and allows customers to expand their spending decision at their convenience earlier in the shopping process. Shoppers who use prequalification spent an average of up to 30% more per transaction.
The prequalified amount available to spend is communicated as “Purchase Power to Affirm” to customers. To learn more about the customer/shopper specific experience, you can view the following customer/shopper specific articles about Purchase Power:
Customers can easily apply for prequalification and get an instant decision. They will be asked to fill in some basic information: Name, Last Name, Email Address, Mobile Number, Birthdate and Last four digits of the SSN. This process is shown below:
When a customer proceeds to make a purchase on your business using Affirm as a payment method, they will need to apply for a loan and get qualified. In other words, their loan application will be either approved or denied by Affirm depending on different factors taken into consideration. The below image shows the qualification/approval process for customers:
The following customer facing articles provide further details on the factors Affirm uses to approve or deny loans: