Record-high buy now pay later (BNPL) holiday shoppers are expected this Cyber Monday, with reportedly over $782 million worth of purchases to be anticipated using the wallet-friendly services, a 19% increase compared to last year, as reported by Reuters, citing Adobe Analytics as their source.
Reuters states that although BNPL has become increasingly popular over the past several years, its use is now being boosted by frugal consumers who want to avoid paying more for credit card transactions to save money on fees and interest.
According to a Klarna poll, almost half of respondents were concerned that their holiday-related credit card debt would prevent them from making their payments in full, presumably causing 29% more purchases with buy-now, pay-later services last Black Friday. The most popular products were kitchen appliances, televisions, and personal devices.
One of the BNPL services that are benefiting the most from the record-high shoppers proves to be affirmed after it saw a roughly 12% increase, the firm's shares' stock market value has increased to over $8 billion in 2023, more than tripling, according to the data released by Adobe Analytics on Monday, as per the Reuters report.
The increase could be attributed to the firm letting customers pay weekly or monthly installments with "interest-free loans." According to the same report, rival Upstart Holdings also saw a 2.6% increase this year, with its shares increasing over 90%.
Stable Holiday Spending For US Shoppers
According to Adobe, between November 1 and November 26, BNPL drove $7.3 billion in online expenditure, an increase of 14% over the previous year. BNPL contributed $760 million of the nearly $10 billion spent on Saturday and Sunday alone- a 20% increase from the prior year.
Fox Business states that the Christmas season was expected to be slower than in previous years because of consumers' financial strain from rising interest rates and persistent inflation. Nonetheless, preliminary data from Monday's shopping spree indicates that although consumer finances have declined from their pre-pandemic levels, spending appears to have stayed stable.
Cyber Week Spending
The initial few days of Cyber Week, which spans the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, have seen spending surpass initial expectations.
Spending over the weekend came at $5 billion on Saturday and $5.3 billion on Sunday. Adobe predicted that $37.2 billion will be spent online during Cyber Week, a 5.4% increase from the previous year.
Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, reportedly states that "the decline in online prices over the last year has created a favorable environment for consumers with strong discounts this season that are tempting even the most price-conscious consumers."
Meanwhile, Mastercard SpendingPulse calculated that e-commerce sales increased by 8.5%, driving a 2.5% rise in overall Black Friday sales over the previous year. According to Mastercard, in-store purchases increased by just 1.1%.
Steve Sadove, Mastercard senior adviser, lauded consumers' financial decisions by reportedly stating that "consumers are navigating the holiday season well and taking advantage of holiday promotions, giving them ample choice as they hunt for gifts for everyone on their list."
