Global Buy Now Pay Later Industry Trends Report 2021: BNPL Services are Gaining Momentum During the Pandemic, as Consumers Want to Postpone their Payments - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "Global Buy Now Pay Later Industry and Trends 2021" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

"Global Buy Now Pay Later Industry and Trends 2021" provides insights into the current state and future trends of the BNPL industry across the globe. The publication reveals that due to the economic disruptions in 2020, the demand for BNPL payments increased significantly, and new local players appeared in different regions.

The global health crisis accelerated the use of BNPL services

Mainly in the developed world, BNPL services gained special attention during the COVID-19 health crisis. In the regions like Africa, however, the service providers still face issues such as limited credit infrastructure and weak purchasing power. Generally, from the consumers' side, BNPL adoption is mainly driven by the younger generation, and the main reason to use the services include zero interest rates and transparent payment plans and conditions.

Moreover, a sampling of UK consumers showed that out of the traditional BNPL offerings, the majority of respondents prefer installment payments, rather than paying the full amount later, according to this publication.

Growth of the BNPL practice attracts the attention of government regulators

In many countries worldwide, local payment authorities raised concerns about the current state of the BNLP industry regulations. Often the practice does not fit the definition of traditional loans, which require interest rate payments, special rules are needed for these services.

For example, in Europe, the European Commission announced the update of current consumer credit agreements to include BNPL service providers; the UK's Financial Conduct Authority is to introduce new regulations in 2021 and the Reserve Bank of Australia is also contemplating new rules.

National and regional regulators are mainly concerned about consumer default issues due to overspending and lack of transparency about the BNPL service conditions: alone in the USA, a significant share of BNPL users have already missed at least one payment, while well over half of users were in the upper range of the limit of their credit card at the time of first BNPL use, according to figures cited in the new market report.

BNPL service providers proliferate, challenging established global brands

As a result of increased demand for BNPL services during the pandemic, major service providers such as Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm thrived in 2020, and continue doing so this year. These players significantly expanded their customer base amid COVID-19, and their revenues soared. Nevertheless, the net profits did not enjoy such growth, as most of them opted for new projects including the launch of new services and further market expansion. Nevertheless, many local BNPL newcomers have emerged, and attracted significant capital investment, according to the report.

Report Coverage

• This report covers the global buy now, pay later market. The report covers activities of various governments, businesses, banks, and market trends, as well as consumer's preferences and demand drivers.
• The following regions/countries were included: the United States, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Africa. Moreover, the report provides an overview of three major BNPL service providers: Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm. The choice of the companies was based on the number of customers their serve, as well as on the fact that all three have different countries of origin.
• The report contains relevant information about regulations, international comparisons, market trends, BNPL adoption rates and usage, consumer preferences, and players. Not all types of information were included for each country, due to varying data availability.

Report Structure

• The report starts with an overview of a global overview of the regulations applied to the BNPL service providers, BNPL trends and benefits for merchants.
• Regional chapters follow the global overview and include information on countries' activities, consumers' attitude towards BNPL services, and other data points.
• The market report concludes with the profiles of three major BNPL service providers and their activities during the COVID-19 health crisis.

Companies Mentioned

• Affirm
• Afterpay
• Akulaku
• Amazon
• Apple Pay
• Atome
• Carbon Zero
• Cashalo
• Clearbanc
• Divido
• Google Pay
• hoolah
• Mastercard
• Paidy
• PayBright
• PayPal
• Pine Labs
• QuadPay
• Revo
• Splitit
• Twisto
• Tymit
• ViaBill
• Visa
• Zilch

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/jok24x