A record £3.4 billion is expected to be spent using BNPL services this holiday season.
As holidays arrive, price conscious consumers are checking their budgets to tick mark the shopping boxes for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and so on. And brands’ marketing teams are busy planning offers and campaigns to fulfil customer needs. But with inflationary pressures on brands, and budgets constraints for customers, where do both the teams meet?
Research from Adobe signals a possible helping hand in the name of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services. With consumers set to spend a record £25.9 billion this holiday season, short term no-interest credit facilities are making baggy shopping possible for customers.
The 2024 Holiday Shopping Trends released by Adobe reveal that a record £3.4 billion is expected to be spent using BNPL services this holiday season, up 8.3% YoY, with £152.3 million expected to be spent on Cyber Monday, making it the largest ever single day for BNPL usage, up £4.3 million on last year’s Cyber Monday.
While shoppers in the UK are spending more freely this holiday season, they are also looking to manage their personal finances through increased utilisation of short-term interest free credit from buy-now-pay-later services to spread the cost of payments and take full advantage of limited time discounts and flash sales when they land.
“While UK shoppers are spending more freely this holiday season, it’s clear that consumers are still observing the more cautious, value and price conscious habits that emerged during periods of high costs-of-living over the past 18 months,” says Vivek Pandya, Lead Analyst, Adobe Digital Insights at Adobe.
“Deal hungry shoppers will again concentrate their spending over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend as they take advantage of the deep discounts on offer across all retail categories to stretch their budgets as far as possible.”
The research also found that £14.6 billion will be spent via mobile this holiday season (November-December), representing 8.4% growth over last years’ £13.5 billion. Mobile revenue share during the holiday season is forecast to be 56.3% of online spend increasing from 55.2% over the same period in 2023.
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