How Second-Look Credit Helps Retailers

As consumers have shifted their purchasing behavior in the past two years, they have reshaped the retail landscape in the process. That has made it especially challenging for large retailers to grow their business.

Companies successful in adapting to change address their brand first. How is my brand perceived? How does it build trust with my customers? How does it create value – and solve problems?

Perhaps the single largest growth opportunity for retailers today are consumers classified as near-prime borrowers. Their credit scores are higher than those of subprime borrowers, but lower than those of prime. Near-prime consumers are often frustrated – they know, with consistent spending and payment habits, they can improve their approval odds for the most favorable credit terms, but they can’t yet secure credit from mainstream lenders.

That’s a challenge for the more than 42% of the U.S. population that falls in the near-prime category (a FICO® score between 550 and 699). In fact, that means these 90 million credit-strapped Americans do not qualify for prime financing.

Fortiva® Retail Credit* is the nation’s premier second-look consumer credit program. Our mission is to provide our retail partners with financing solutions that drive sales, increase customer loyalty and solve problems. We understand what it takes to help make your brand more valuable.

The pandemic has taught us that companies with tech-forward business models can be successful. Especially those models where technology increases flexibility, provides intelligent forecasting and avoids roadblocks.

When targeting the near-prime segment, that’s where Fortiva Retail Credit excels.

For example, we know how much your business depends on the power of financing**. And we know you need a tool that’s easy to integrate, removes obstacles and optimizes the credit approval process.

Rather than focus exclusively on an applicant’s FICO score for validation, the proprietary risk-based underwriting methodologies used by Fortiva Retail Credit leverage additional data sources – such as banking information and payment history – to drive more approvals more often. It’s a tiered approach that helps you facilitate a seamless and successful consumer application process.

Second-look financing through Fortiva Retail Credit is a solution that solves challenges for near-prime consumers. It is an instant credit alternative. It is a financial product that provides your customers the freedom to purchase more goods and services, to meet their expectations of you as a retailer and to rebuild their credit in the process.

Most important, it’s a solution that gives you a strong competitive advantage and helps fortify your brand today and for years to come. In fact, the program manager for Fortiva Retail Credit applies the experience gained and infrastructure built from servicing over 17 million customers and $25 billion in consumer loans over our 22-year operating history.

Our retail program partners across a wide range of industries have captured a credit segment previously unattainable. Here’s why:

First, Fortiva Retail Credit integrates with first look credit programs from leading prime lenders to enable a seamless consumer application process that extends more credit to more customers.

Second, we employ a scalable infrastructure that ensures your second-look financing platform can easily grow with your business.

And, finally, we offer both a private label and co-branded credit product for your consumers to give you the perfect customized solution for your specialized audience. These cards keep your customers coming back and help build brand loyalty.

According to our research†, when customers are “approved for more,” Fortiva Retail Credit program partners have reported up to a 50% increase in incremental credit approvals, up to a 35% increase in average ticket size and up to a 25% increase in repeat transactions.

If you are interested in learning more about Fortiva Retail Credit, please contact us today.

* Fortiva® Retail Credit is a technology-enabled second look point-of-sale consumer credit program offering accounts underwritten and issued by The Bank of Missouri. The Fortiva Retail Credit program is managed by subsidiaries of Atlanticus Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: ATLC).
** According to a study conducted by Dun & Bradstreet, only nine percent of consumers prefer to use cash over credit, and ultimately spend up to 18 percent more per visit when they use credit.
†Fortiva Retail Credit’s top 20 performing partners, 2019 data.

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