(BPT) - Key takeaways:

• In today's economic climate, customers need financing options to help them shop at small businesses.
• Small business owners can offer a variety of financing options to help boost customer loyalty and avoid costly discounting practices.
• Synchrony helps small businesses offer private-label credit cards with promotional period financing and installment loans - like Buy Now, Pay Later - to help retain customers and compete with larger companies.
• Synchrony partners with over 500,000 business locations across the country, providing services designed to help small businesses thrive.

When a customer hesitates at the register, the problem may not be the product or service. It may actually be the payment method.

In a year when affordability tops the priority list for many consumers, demand hasn't disappeared. Consumers are just waiting for a better path to purchase. Offering flexible financing options can help small businesses capture that demand and win customers that bigger competitors might otherwise scoop up.

For years, it seemed that only the big chains were able to offer financing. Not anymore. Synchrony partners with more than 500,000 merchant locations across the U.S., including independent auto shops, dental practices, furniture stores, powersports dealers, home improvement contractors and more, giving them the digital tools, training and financing infrastructure to help them compete with brands that have entire teams dedicated to those functions.

It's worth asking: Are you giving every customer the best possible chance to say yes? No matter your line of business, the right financing tools can help protect your margins, reduce cart abandonment and build the kind of loyalty that keeps customers coming back and helps your business grow.

Here's what you need to know about giving your customers more financing options.

Smart customer financing solutions help drive sales

Has your small business been resorting to tactics like offering discounts to entice customers? You could be losing out. Not only are you tightening your margins, which hurts your bottom line, but you're also setting the expectation that if customers wait long enough, you'll offer another discount.

When you're ready to launch a customer financing program for your business, Synchrony provides the digital tools, training, marketing support and account management that helps small business owners compete with brands that have dedicated teams for those functions.

Small and medium-sized businesses can use multi-source financing and tools like Synchrony PRISM to offer credit access to customers:

• Multisource financing (MSF) is how Synchrony connects applicants who might otherwise have been declined with expanded financing solutions offered through our secondary financing partners. With a single application, Synchrony is able to reduce friction at the point of sale by facilitating more approvals and driving conversion. And merchants benefit from significantly higher approval rates for their customers, which can drive more sales and customer satisfaction.
• Synchrony PRISM is a credit decisioning platform that goes beyond the traditional credit score. In determining whether to extend credit, many of Synchrony's competitors only use credit bureau data, while Synchrony PRISM incorporates up to 20,000 data attributes, including cash flow, rent payment history and other behavioral signals, to identify creditworthy customers that a conventional model might miss. By offering a more holistic view of consumers, Synchrony PRISM increases approval rates for a similar level of risk while reducing fraud. For small business partners, that can translate to fewer lost sales and more customers walking out the door satisfied.

To make these financing tools even easier to offer at the point of sale, Synchrony can integrate financing directly into the systems your team already uses every day.

Independent software vendor (ISV) integrations embed Synchrony's financing options directly into your company's practice management systems, point-of-sale platforms and field service tools your team uses every day. This makes financing a natural part of the conversation rather than a separate step your staff has to introduce and manage.

Flexible financing options for your customers

Synchrony provides a suite of consumer financing options that can be offered together through a single application, to help match more customers with more potential payment paths.

Offering multiple financing solutions early in sales interactions helps reduce sticker shock and gives customers more purchasing power.

Through Synchrony, your business can empower customers by offering:

• Private-Label and Network Credit Cards: These revolving credit accounts feature the merchant's brand or a Synchrony network (such as the Synchrony HOME or Synchrony Car Care credit cards) which can be used at thousands of merchant locations. Customers can keep and reuse them for repeat purchases, helping build loyalty to that business. These cards may also offer promotional financing, which can help make larger purchases more manageable by allowing the cardholder to pay over time.
• Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)/Installment Loans: This model lets customers split a purchase into fixed, scheduled payments over a defined term, creating a one-time-use loan rather than open-ended revolving credit. It's commonly used for customers who prefer predictable payments and is especially prevalent in big-ticket categories - such as powersports, trailers, musical instruments and lawn and garden equipment - often offered through dealer channels on Synchrony's platforms.
• CareCredit Credit Card: A dedicated health and wellness credit card, from Synchrony, is accepted at over 290,000 locations including dental, vision, audiology, chiropractic, veterinary and wellness practices. This option offers promotional financing that can help patients pay over time for the care they want or need. Health and wellness providers accepting CareCredit receive payment quickly, helping protect cash flow so they can focus on care rather than collections.

In a market where every dollar is considered, the businesses that make spending feel manageable are the ones customers return to.

Learn more about boosting your business at Synchrony.com/business.

Financing is subject to credit approval.