Buying now and paying later is still a popular way to splurge on airfare to Cabo. It’s an increasingly common way to buy groceries and lawn furniture, too. Consumers ages 35 and under comprise 53% of “buy now, pay later” users but just 35% of traditional credit card holders, according to LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Many of those core “
services, which let users break up transactions into several payments with little or no interest, are becoming a routine tool in young adults’ wallets as they adapt to higher prices. Afterpay’s youngest users’ spending on many staples has surged by double and triple digits, with contact lenses soaring 465% from 2022 to 2023, garbage bags jumping 182% and first-aid antiseptics rising 98%. Their spending growth for lighter fluid, laptop parts and snoring and sleep apnea aids all surpassed 300%.
borrowers in their 20s and 30s making the shift toward essentials. Grocery purchases by shoppers of all ages have expanded their slice of online to avoid credit cards with interest rates of 20% or higher. But younger users’ opting to pay for more necessities in installments also reflects the mini-loans’ growing ubiquity in an economy where many consumer prices have swelled.
services make money by charging commission fees from merchants when customers apply one of their instant loans at checkout. Afterpay’s retail partners include sellers of household staples such as 1-800-Contacts and PetSmart. In December, rival provider Affirm announced it was expanding to self-checkout kiosks at Walmart’s 4,500 U.S. stores, bringing the option within closer reach of shoppers stocking up on basics.
customers use the services differently depending on their finances. Those on shakier footing tend to use them like credit cards “to make medium-size, out-of-budget purchases frequently,” they wrote. More financially stable users turn to