2026 Edition · Free to read

The Merchant Credit Playbook for a year when financing decides where customers shop.

A field guide for merchants with a card program (private label, co-brand, or merchant-owned) whose checkout keeps losing the click to BNPL. Built around the new PYMNTS merchant-choice data, the agentic commerce timeline, and the partner-bank dynamics most teams are operating below their ceiling on.

Length ~5,000 words
Format PDF · 12 pages
For Merchant credit teams
Author Sean McAuliffe
What's inside

A four-part playbook for merchants with a card program.

Built around the operator decisions that actually move conversion at your checkout, the partner-bank conversations worth having, and a ten-action list your team can run this week.

01 · Part 1

What changed in 2026, and why it changes your job

The merchant-choice data nobody is using, the bifurcation between card installments and BNPL, and what agentic commerce means for storefront visibility in 12 months.

02 · Part 2

The Merchant Credit Operating Model

Seven coordinated capabilities, with the partner-bank relationship reframed as a velocity asset rather than a constraint. Surface strategy, category strategy, segment economics, structural moats.

03 · Part 3

The 2026 execution roadmap

Quarter-by-quarter: what to inventory in Q2, what to ship in Q3, what to scale in Q4, and how to position the program for renewal in 2027.

04 · Part 4

Ten actions for the next seven business days

Concrete, no-approval-needed moves a merchant credit product leader can run this week. The highest-ROI exercises most teams haven't done.

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Most consumers would be better served by a credit product than by the alternative sitting next to it at checkout. And most merchants would be too. BNPL wins the conversion meeting. Credit wins the decade.

From the Playbook
Who it's for

Built for the merchant who runs the card program.

If your team owns a card program at your own checkout (private label, co-brand, or merchant-owned) and you're watching it lose the click to BNPL, this playbook is for you.

You'll get value if…

This is the buyer the playbook was written for.

  • ●You're a VP, Director, or Head of Credit Products on the merchant side of a card or financing program
  • ●Your card is losing share at your own checkout to the BNPL button next to it
  • ●You operate inside a partner-bank relationship and feel the clock-speed gap with BNPL acutely
  • ●You're preparing for a renewal cycle or planning your 2026 roadmap right now
  • ●You sell in a category where financing influences merchant choice: travel, healthcare, large retail ticket, food delivery

It's not for…

Honest about who's outside the buyer.

  • ○Issuers, banks, or originators on the credit-supply side: different playbook, different lever set
  • ○Pure BNPL providers (Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay): this playbook treats you as the competition
  • ○Smaller merchants without a card program of their own: the playbook assumes one exists
  • ○Operators looking for general fintech trend reports: this is opinionated and operator-grade, not survey research
Author
Sean McAuliffe
Founder, Forefront Product

A decade in consumer credit, lending, and payments. Currently leads cardmember acquisition at checkout for a program targeting 1,000+ new accounts per week at maturity. Previously product roles on the lender side at issuers, originators, and direct-to-consumer credit programs.

Forefront Product helps merchants close the gap between their card program and the BNPL button sitting next to it at checkout. Engagements start with the Partner-Bank & Checkout Audit, a five-day diagnostic of why the card is losing the click, and a prioritized roadmap of what to do about it.

Author of Autonomy Lost (2023). Writing Pay Later (2027), a cultural history of consumer borrowing.

If the playbook is your roadmap and your team doesn't have time to run it this quarter…

That's the Partner-Bank & Checkout Audit. Five days, $5,000, a prioritized roadmap your team can execute against on Monday.

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