Buy-now pay-later payments surge to $120bn after e-commerce take-up
Payments via buy-now pay-later products (BNPL) rocketed to $120bn last year after a surge in adoption by e-commerce giants like Amazon and Shopify, fresh data has revealed.
BNPL products accounted for 2.3 per cent of the global ecommerce market in 2021 as millennial and so-called Gen Z shoppers piled onto the platforms, according to a report from GlobalData.
Analysts at the firm said the boom in take-up last year has seen transaction value almost quadruple from $33bn in 2019.
“This rapid growth was down to an increasing number of merchants accepting these solutions,” said Chris Dinga, Payments Analyst at GlobalData.
“There have been some huge partnerships with ecommerce giants such as Amazon and Shopify, opening up a whole new world of consumers.”
The uptick comes as regulators in the UK prepare to swoop on the space over fears that users are taking on unmanageable amounts of debt amidst a cost-of-living crunch.
After closing a consultation on the scope of regulation in January, the Treasury told City PM it would be publishing responses in “the coming weeks”.
Calls have grown to pick up the pace however, with the author of a major review of the space, Chris Woolard, telling City PM last week that the “pace has slowed”.