Ecommerce-wise, sometimes it seems like everything old is new again. Traditional retail features like layaway and installment plans have been adapted for online shopping and are growing in popularity—especially among younger consumers.
Maybe you have seen fine print offering four interest-free payments instead of one lump sum by a company called Afterpay on retail sites like Anthropologie and Steve Madden. Countless others—QuadPay, UpLift, Affirm, Klarna, Splitit—have popped up to provide similar services.
Why so many? The resurgence is in response to multiple factors: added flexibility that omnichannel shoppers have become accustomed to, economic uncertainty along with the need to manage debt, and the fact that younger consumers are far less likely to use credit cards. Per Experian, Gen Z has 1.44 credit cards on average, millennials have 2.52, Gen Xers have 3.22, and boomers have 3.53.
In an August 2018 global survey by BigCommerce, 45% of digital consumers said that the availability of financing options would influence a purchase decision. Over one-third of those who used financing said it allowed them to buy a more expensive product than they initially had in mind, and 31% wouldn't have made a purchase without the option to pay in installments.