PayPal Pay Later

The Challenge

C Spire requires customers to pass a credit check to finance a phone. But many customers weren’t passing — and even more weren’t willing to pay full price up front. As a result, we saw major drop-off at checkout.

To improve conversion, we introduced PayPal and Pay Later, a financing option with lower credit requirements, giving customers a second chance to pay over time.

Our key challenges:

- Introduce PayPal + Pay Later without adding friction
- Help customers understand their options before hitting a blocker
- Preserve the seamless checkout experience regardless of payment path

Research Highlights

We kicked things off by mapping the checkout journey and identifying friction points.

We also asked:
Could we move the credit check earlier in the journey, so customers wouldn’t be surprised later?

To test this, we added an optional credit check CTA on the product page — thinking it would help customers know upfront if they could finance or not.

What we learned:

- Almost no one used it
- Customers preferred to run the check when they were ready to purchase
- Early credit prompts created hesitation, not clarity

We removed the product page credit check and returned to our original timing — in checkout.

Design

With credit check location locked in, we moved on to integrating PayPal and Pay Later:

1. Express Checkout Path
   - On the cart page, customers could now select PayPal as an express checkout option
   - They’d be redirected to PayPal, where they could select Pay Later

   
   

2. Traditional Checkout Path
   - Customers entered shipping info
   - Then came the credit check. If the customer passed, they continued through checkout as usual. If they didn’t, a seamless pop-up presented alternative options: finance with PayPal Pay Later, pay the full amount upfront, or choose a different device.

No backtracking. No dead ends. Just clear, flexible paths forward — all within the same checkout experience.

Testing

We tested both payment paths and the fail state popup to ensure:

- Clarity of Pay Later as a financing option
- Ease of choosing between fallback options
- Consistency in visual language and tone

Insights:

- Testers understood the Pay Later option
- The fail state popup felt helpful, not harsh
- Minor copy tweaks improved confidence and clarity

Results

Since launch, we've seen:

- An uptick in total orders
- Strong adoption of Pay Later
- Even higher-than-expected use of PayPal as a standard payment method

The new flow gives customers control — and keeps them moving forward, even if the credit check doesn’t go their way.