BNPL ‘Only Option’ for 58% of Cash-Strapped U.S. Consumers

Buy Now, Pay Later options grow within the digital payments landscape amid economic pressures

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services are a growing option within digital payments, giving consumers the ability to make purchases even when cash and credit might otherwise be an obstacle. These findings are excerpted from Similarweb’s Digital Ecommerce Landscape report, available for download.

Key takeaways

• Within a participating survey panel of mobile app users, 37% said they have used BNPL at some time and 27% have done so within the last year (as of January 2023).
• Among U.S. respondents who said their ability to save was a lot less in 2022 than the previous year, 58% said they took advantage of BNPL because it was their only option to make a purchase.
• Digital retailers who employed BNPL did 13 percentage points better in converted visits (visits that converted into a purchase), according to Similarweb estimates of desktop web activity (+2% for those offering BNPL versus -11% for those who did not).
• BNPL was particularly impactful for the consumer electronics industry, where converted visits dipped overall but merchants offering BNPL did 16 percentage points better than those who did not.

Usage is particularly important around the holiday season but decreased in 2022 as consumer spending tightened up

Usage peaked around the holiday season, but overall it was lower during 2022 than during 2021 due to a decrease in consumer spending in the last few months.

Monthly Unique Users for all Buy-Now-Pay-Later Apps combined (Android & iOS)

U.S., App, February 2021 – January 2022

While there is most likely usage overlap between the different BNPL apps available in the U.S., it is clear that they are becoming a popular way for customers to pay for their purchases online and in-store. Combined monthly active users for Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay, Sezzle, Zip, and PerPay rose by over 200% from 5.7M in February 2021 to 11.2M in January 2022.

Monthly Unique Users per Buy-Now-Pay-Later App (Android & iOS)

U.S., App, February 2021 – January 2022

Australian player Afterpay is the leading provider for the U.S. market, although its leadership position is being increasingly challenged by Swedish firm Klarna & San Francisco-based Affirm.

Read the full report

These findings are excerpts from a detailed report, The Categorical Rise of BNPL, available separately or as part of Similarweb’s Digital Ecommerce Landscape study.

Read more – The Meteoric Rise of the Buy Now, Pay Later Industry

The Similarweb Insights & Communications team is available to pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (journalists are invited to write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com/blog/insights/.

Methodology

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by Inès Durand

Inès provides market research insights in Retail, CPG, and Financial Services. Her work has appeared in Retail Today, CNBC, and AFP.