A Study on the Impact of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Services among Young Adults

Author

Rajeswari R, R Gayathri, Dr. Santhosh Jayagopalan


Abstract

 Paying later has become an everyday option on shopping apps and payment platforms, and young adults are often the first to try it. This study looks at how Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services affect the spending behaviour of young adults. It examines the factors that attract young adults to BNPL, the link between BNPL usage and unplanned purchases, and the effect of BNPL usage on spending. A descriptive research design was used, and primary data were gathered from 55 young adults who had used BNPL, selected through snowball sampling. The data were collected using a Google Forms questionnaire and analysed using percentage analysis, the weighted average method, Pearson correlation and regression. The results revealed that flexible repayment and smaller instalments were the most influential factors (weighted average 3.62 each), that the frequency of BNPL usage was positively correlated with buying unplanned products (r = 0.286, p = 0.034), and that the frequency of BNPL usage had a significant but modest effect on spending patterns (F = 5.49, p = 0.023). Overall, the results suggest that how a payment is split and repaid matters more to young adults than the offers attached to it. BNPL providers and FinTech companies can use these findings to design services that are convenient without encouraging overspending.



Keywords

Buy Now Pay Later, BNPL, Young Adults, Spending Behaviour, Unplanned Purchases, FinTech



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References


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