The difference between those two outcomes is distribution strategy, and this guide covers fintech adoption models explained one route at a time: how financial products actually reach people, and why the route changes what consumers pay and what businesses earn. Retail users already account for 62.91% of US fintech activity, with mobile apps carrying 70.21% of usage, according to Mordor Intelligence. Fintech adoption models explained: the five routes to scaleEvery fintech product that reached scale in America traveled one of five roads. An embedded product acquires customers for nearly nothing because the host software already owns them. Embedded products compete on convenience, and the cost can hide in the host product’s margins, so the consumer’s job shifts from comparing fees to noticing them at all.