Let’s talk about ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’
Shining a light on the case for Buy Now, Pay Later from a consumer, investor and economic perspective.
Buy Now, Pay Later is trending with consumers, investors and regulators world wide. The reinvention of an old product onto new and exciting digital platforms has the world scrambling for more. As someone part of the generation using Buy Now, Pay Later for everything from dentistry to instagram critical Louis Vuitton bags, I feel it’s time we reviewed the proposition for consumers, retailers and the broader community.
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)has generally been defined as a ‘payment service that allows consumers to delay payment or pay by instalments.’ For regulators a clear distinction of the product is that it doesn’t charge interest to the consumer for the use of credit. This means that instead of parting with $500 today, you can purchase on BNPL for $125 every fortnight over the next 8 weeks, at no extra cost. This creates a win for you, the retailer and the financier.
If this sounds familiar then it’s probably because BNPL is a well marketed, modern version of products like Lay-By, hire purchase and to a lesser extent credit cards.
