Write new rules. This phrase from a recent Cole Haan marketing campaign helps explain the brand’s longevity and success.

“It feels like we’re a 100-year-old startup in many ways,” said Megan Lindstrand, Vice President of Global Marketing for Cole Haan. For nearly a century, the company has innovated to play an active role in customers’ needs for dress, casual, outdoor, and sport shoes. Recent innovations include a new golf line and offering Affirm’s Pay in 4 product (formerly known as split pay) as a payment option for e-commerce customers.

Like any good startup would, Cole Haan tested the upgraded version of Pay in 4 in the fall of 2020. The product allows customers to split their purchases into 4 interest-free payments, to be made every other week. The results of the test included a 23% lift in conversion rate and a 180% increase in daily Affirm sales volume.

Lindstrand said Pay in 4, which Cole Haan has now fully implemented on its site, has been “very attractive” to shoppers because of its 0% APR offering. 

“Our customers see the Affirm Pay in 4 option as a way they can better afford buying our products for themselves—or even utilize during gift-giving season,” she said. “The interest-free appeal and the greater conversion rate are some ways this payment method is having a positive impact on our e-commerce business.”

Cole Haan strives to give shoppers more convenience and offset barriers to purchase, she said. Offerings like speedy delivery, omnichannel access, an easy returns process, and Affirm’s Pay in 4 “are small ways we can demonstrate consumer centricity.”

“At Cole Haan, we’re writing new rules every day for the types of product solutions we’re providing our customers, and the way in which we’re bringing those to market,” she said. “The Affirm brand reinforces that message by democratizing the purchase process and offering very similar value.”