The use of Buy Now, Pay Later payments is growing in popularity with merchants and consumers alike. The concept has been compared to a modern-day version of layaway with one key exception. With layway, shoppers made regular payments, but they weren’t able to take their merchandise home until the balance was paid in full. With Buy Now, Pay Later plans, consumers can pay for goods and services in four equal payments, often without paying additional fees and interest.

Last fall, the BNPL payments market expanded into subscriptions, allowing subscribers to pay for purchases at IPSY, BoxyCharm, Savage X Venty and Fabletics. For merchants, the attraction is the reduction of risk. Merchants get paid up front by Buy Now, Pay Later companies like Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm. For consumers, the attraction is spreading out payments over a brief period of time without extra fees or interest that would accrue if they used a credit card instead.

Globally, Klarna has the biggest market share, followed by Afterpay and Affirm. In the Unite Stats, PayPal Credit is the most popular Buy Now, Pay Later service with 34.6 million users in 2020, compared to 7.9 million Klarna users for the same period. Not surprisingly, BNPL payment services are the most popular with Gen Z shoppers. In 2021, Gen Z represented 36.8% of all BNPL buyers. That percentage is expected to grow to 46.5% in 2023 and 47.4% in 2025. Get those stats and other data points in our latest STAT PACK.

Table of Contents

Worldwide

– Active users of Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm worldwide 2021
– Key players in BNPL worldwide, based on transaction value 2020
– BNPL share in e-commerce in 21 countries worldwide 2016-2020
– POS financing in offline shopping in 40 countries worldwide 2020
– Growth of curbside pickup, BOPIS and BNPL usage during COVID-19, by region

United States

– Key players in BNPL services in the U.S. based on users 2020
– BNPL monthly app installs overall in the U.S. 2020
– Klarna, Afterpay, Affirm, Quadpay and Sezzle downloads in the U.S. in 2020
– BNPL market size in the U.S. 2019-2020, with forecasts to 2024
– BNPL user age in the U.S. 2020-2021
– Share of U.S. adults interested in BNPL services 2021, by age
– BNPL service usage in the U.S. 2021-2025, by generation
– BNPL users in the U.S. 2021, by gender
– BNPL key motivations in the U.S. 2020
– Popular products to buy with BNPL in the U.S. 2020

Australia

– Share of consumers likely to use BNPL services Australia 2021, by company
– Key players in BNPL in Australia, based on awareness 2018-2021
– BNPL user figure in Australia 2019-2020
– Use of BNPL payments in the last six months in Australia 2021, by generation
– Perceived benefits of offering BNPL services Australia 2021
– Share of consumers using BNPL Australia 2021, by purchase category
– Share of online businesses offering BNPL services Australia 2021, by industry

United Kingdom

– Key players in BNPL in the U.K., based on app downloads 2020
– Monthly active users of the Klarna app in the U.K. 2018-2021
– BNPL user age in the U.K. 2020
– Coronavirus impact on the use of BNPL in the U.K. 2020
– Product categories purchased through BNPL in the U.K. 2021
– BNPL debt per capita on nine different platforms in the U.K. 2020-2021
– BNPL debt per capita in 11 different cities in the U.K. 2021

EU-27

– Klarna downloads in Europe in 2020
– Usage of digital payment services in Sweden 2014-2020
– Preferred online payment methods from consumers in Germany 2020
– Market share of online payment methods in the Netherlands 2014-2020