Splitit is positioning card-linked installments as an alternative to traditional buy now, pay later products, and its latest industry recognition underscores how embedded payment infrastructure is becoming a competitive issue for merchants. The company has won Best Embedded Payments Solution for Merchants & E-commerce at the 2026 PayTech Awards, presented by FinTech Futures, for a platform designed to let merchants add installment payments directly to existing checkout experiences.

Splitit’s latest award comes at a time when merchants are looking beyond standalone financing products and toward payment infrastructure that can operate inside their existing commerce stack.

The company won Best Embedded Payments Solution for Merchants & E-commerce at the 2026 PayTech Awards, with the award recognizing payment technology judged on functionality, technology maturity, breadth of its platform and measurable customer outcomes. The winners were announced June 25 in London at an event bringing together banking and payments executives.

At the center of Splitit’s offering is its Installments-as-a-Service platform. Instead of sending shoppers to a separate financing application, Splitit allows merchants to present installment options within their own payment flow. The model uses the shopper’s existing credit card rather than creating a new loan or requiring a separate credit application.

That distinction matters in a market where embedded finance is increasingly moving payment products closer to the point of purchase. For merchants, the appeal is not simply offering another way to pay. Keeping the financing experience within the checkout can help preserve the merchant’s brand, customer relationship and transaction journey.

Splitit says its platform now serves more than 4,500 active merchants across 30 countries, while shoppers can access installment payments in more than 100 countries and over 100 currencies. The company also estimates that its model can reach approximately 1.2 billion cardholders globally because customers use existing card credit rather than applying for a new financing product.

The company’s approach differs from conventional BNPL platforms, where the provider typically makes a separate underwriting decision at checkout. Splitit’s card-linked model instead leverages credit that has already been extended by the customer’s card issuer.

According to Splitit, that results in approval rates above 85%, compared with the 35%–40% average it cites for traditional BNPL products. Those figures are company-provided rather than an independently verified industry benchmark, but they illustrate the strategic argument behind card-linked installments: reducing friction by working with an existing credit relationship.

The proposition is expanding beyond ecommerce, too. Splitit’s recently introduced Splitit Go extends the company’s installment infrastructure to face-to-face transactions, including sectors such as home services, healthcare, automotive and specialty retail.

That expansion reflects a broader shift in payments. Digital checkout innovation is no longer limited to online shopping carts. Merchants increasingly expect payment infrastructure to work consistently across ecommerce, mobile applications and physical sales environments.

The merchant-control argument is another important part of Splitit’s positioning. Because the installment option is integrated into the merchant’s own checkout rather than a third-party financing page, Splitit says merchants retain ownership of the customer experience and transaction relationship.

For enterprise payment teams, that can be significant. Payment orchestration increasingly involves balancing conversion, financing options, fraud controls, data ownership and customer experience across multiple channels. A payment product that can be embedded without forcing a major change to the checkout architecture may be easier to deploy than a standalone consumer-finance experience.

There are also early indications that payment choice can influence behavior after checkout. Fashion retailer Fashionette reported an 18% lower return rate on transactions completed through Splitit compared with single-payment purchases. That finding is specific to the retailer and should not be interpreted as evidence that installment payments universally reduce returns, but it points to a potentially interesting area for merchants: whether flexible payment structures affect purchase consideration and post-purchase behavior.

Splitit’s recognition also places the company in a wider competitive ecosystem that includes established BNPL providers, card networks, banks and embedded-finance platforms. Companies such as Affirm, Klarna and PayPal have helped normalize installment payments at checkout, while payment infrastructure providers and card issuers are increasingly integrating financing capabilities directly into commerce flows.

The competitive question is therefore shifting. The value of an installment product is no longer determined only by whether a merchant can offer monthly payments. Enterprises also need to consider approval rates, geographic coverage, integration requirements, economics, customer ownership and how much control the merchant retains over the checkout.

For merchants evaluating embedded payments, Splitit’s model represents one route: use existing card credit and embed installments into the payment experience rather than introducing another lending relationship. Whether that approach gains broader traction will depend on merchant economics, consumer adoption, regulatory requirements and how card issuers and payment networks evolve their own installment offerings.

The PayTech Award gives Splitit another industry credential, following its recognition by the Association for Corporate Growth Atlanta as a 2026 Georgia Fast 40 company. More importantly, the company’s growth reflects a larger direction in fintech: payment functionality is increasingly becoming infrastructure that merchants expect to disappear into the commerce experience.

Market Landscape

The embedded payments market is moving toward invisible financial infrastructure. Merchants increasingly want payments, financing and other financial services integrated directly into commerce platforms rather than presented as separate destinations.

For enterprise teams, competition is likely to center on five areas:

• Checkout integration: Payment and financing options must work across web, mobile and increasingly in-person channels.
• Approval and conversion: Merchants need financing products that minimize application friction without compromising risk controls.
• Customer ownership: Brands increasingly want to control the checkout relationship and associated customer data.
• Global reach: Cross-border commerce requires support for multiple currencies, markets and regulatory environments.
• Payment economics: Enterprises must evaluate conversion gains against merchant fees, financing costs and operational complexity.

The broader fintech ecosystem includes payment networks, banks, BNPL providers and infrastructure companies competing to own different layers of that stack. Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe, Affirm and Klarna represent different approaches to payments, credit and commerce infrastructure, while technology giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google continue to expand the role of financial services within their broader digital ecosystems.

For merchants, the result is a more fragmented but increasingly programmable payments environment. The winning infrastructure may be less about adding another visible payment button and more about making financing work reliably behind the scenes.

Top Insights

• Splitit’s PayTech Award recognizes card-linked installments as embedded payment infrastructure, highlighting merchant demand for financing directly inside existing checkout flows.
• The platform serves 4,500-plus merchants across 30 countries, giving enterprise commerce teams access to installment functionality across global payment environments.
• Splitit says approval rates exceed 85%, positioning existing card credit as a lower-friction alternative to separate BNPL underwriting and applications.
• Splitit Go expands installments into physical commerce, potentially broadening embedded financing across automotive, healthcare, home services and specialty retail.
• The announcement highlights a broader payments shift toward invisible infrastructure, where merchants retain control over branding, customer relationships and checkout experiences.

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