Here at Tires-Easy, we’ve been supplying quality tires directly through our website since 2004, so we’ve learned how to address our customers’ key needs. Many people who buy on Tires-Easy lack access to an affordable selection of tires because they live in rural areas, which don’t have the selection or competition that drive down prices in cities.

We’ve addressed this need by offering a huge selection on our exclusively-online store. We sell tires for every kind of vehicle—from passenger cars, motorcycles and heavy-construction vehicles; to sports cars, ATVs, and lawnmowers—at prices to suit every budget. We’re able to carry a diverse inventory that some physical stores simply can’t.

We’re proud to be paving the way for online tire sales, which is becoming increasingly popular. Sixty-eight percent of consumers research tires online before purchasing, according to a 2014 Google study

Financing is a natural fit for the online tire business

But there’s one customer need we hadn’t adequately addressed until very recently. Many people need help paying for tires over time, and understandably so. Outfitting your car with new tires is like going to the dentist for a toothache: It’s not something you usually plan for, and you don’t always have the necessary cash on hand, especially with so many people in our country living paycheck to paycheck. And new tires aren’t something you should skimp on or put off, as waiting could compromise safety or performance.

For all these reasons, financing is a natural fit for the online tire business. While some Tires-Easy customers choose to use credit cards, many of them regularly request other financing options. It was important to our customers, so it was very important to us—but finding the right solution wasn’t easy.

In the past, we tried offering PayPal’s Bill Me Later (now PayPal Credit), but it didn’t work out—partly because people don’t associate PayPal with financing. We had to re-educate our customers, and in the end, hardly anyone used it. After an exhaustive search, including frustrating interviews with traditional financing companies, we discovered Affirm. We knew we’d found the right partner after speaking with Affirm for just a few minutes. Having previously worked for Charles Schwab’s IT team, I knew the technical specifications that we were looking for—a service that had an API and hosted pages—and Affirm was a perfect match. I knew it would be a seamless integration. Most importantly, it was clearly a solution our customers would love. Nothing else out there even came close.

Today, over 15 percent of all sales on Tires-Easy are financed with Affirm, giving our customers the ability to “drive now and pay later." Now, more people are using Affirm to purchase on our site than those using MasterCard or American Express.

With Affirm, our customers get a simple and transparent buying experience, with no gimmicks or hidden fees. They need only provide a few pieces of basic information and if approved, choose the monthly payment option that works best for their budget. Thanks to our partnership with Affirm, financing tires from Tires-Easy is both simple and—well—easy.