One of the most prevalent new trends that can be seen in the world of commerce has to do with buy now and pay later trend that allow consumers to purchase things and pay them off through monthly installments over time. This is essentially quite similar to credit cards and the like except that you don’t need a credit card and the debt will be owned by the company that sells the product you bought rather than banks.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Gen Z consumers who are arguably the most important consumers for any company to end up focusing on tend to have rather mixed feelings about such schemes, as reported by Studentbeans. 33% of them feel like these kinds of schemes allow them to buy things that they would not have otherwise been able to afford, but 39% seem to think that this is just a way to bring massive amounts of debt into their lives.
This number is even higher in the UK with 41% of Gen Z consumers feeling like using BNPL schemes would more or less guarantee them sinking rather deeply into debt. 30% of people that are Gen Z in the US have used BNPL schemes, but 18% of them, or 5.4% of all the members of Gen Z that were surveyed, failed to make a payment on time. 11% of UK consumers that used BNPL at some point or another also failed to make timely payments which resulted in them having to pay for interest as well as their principal debt increasing.
BNPL schemes can definitely be useful if someone or the other needs to buy something essential which they can’t afford to pay for in a lump sum, and 71% of BNPL purchases had to do with clothes and shoes which are definitely quite essential. However, it should also be noted that this could create a pretty huge debt crisis especially when you take into account the fact that this industry is not currently being regulated all that much these days.
Read next: The 5G Rollout is Well Underway, Here’s How Things Are Going
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Gen Z consumers who are arguably the most important consumers for any company to end up focusing on tend to have rather mixed feelings about such schemes, as reported by Studentbeans. 33% of them feel like these kinds of schemes allow them to buy things that they would not have otherwise been able to afford, but 39% seem to think that this is just a way to bring massive amounts of debt into their lives.
This number is even higher in the UK with 41% of Gen Z consumers feeling like using BNPL schemes would more or less guarantee them sinking rather deeply into debt. 30% of people that are Gen Z in the US have used BNPL schemes, but 18% of them, or 5.4% of all the members of Gen Z that were surveyed, failed to make a payment on time. 11% of UK consumers that used BNPL at some point or another also failed to make timely payments which resulted in them having to pay for interest as well as their principal debt increasing.
BNPL schemes can definitely be useful if someone or the other needs to buy something essential which they can’t afford to pay for in a lump sum, and 71% of BNPL purchases had to do with clothes and shoes which are definitely quite essential. However, it should also be noted that this could create a pretty huge debt crisis especially when you take into account the fact that this industry is not currently being regulated all that much these days.
Read next: The 5G Rollout is Well Underway, Here’s How Things Are Going