BNPL Holiday Shopping Trends
When you are a child, the holidays are pure joy except when you notice how grumpy and worried the adults around you seem. When you are grown up, the holiday gloom makes a lot more sense. Being broke is no fun, no matter the weather, but it is even worse during the holidays, when messages are bombarding you from every direction about the presents you would buy for your loved ones and the snowy locales you would take them to, if only you had more money. Even when you have decided, both out of wisdom and out of necessity, not to buy gifts this year, the festive store window decorations and the stocking stuffer discounts online keep luring you back in. You are not alone in any of this. Virtually everyone is in debt this year, and most of them are Christmas shopping. Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all solution to this problem, but the best thing you can do now to avoid being broke next holiday season is to contact a Plantation debt lawyer.
BNPL Shoppers Spend More, and There Are More of Them
No one misses sharing Thanksgiving dinner over Zoom, but buy now pay later (BNPL) is a pandemic era habit that Americans are in no hurry to break. Many in person and online retailers offer BNPL options, by which customers pay for a purchase in installments, gaining possession of the purchased item immediately. BNPL arrangements do not charge interest if you pay on time, but you might have to pay fees if you miss a payment, and, of course, if you default on the agreement, the BNPL company can refer your account to collections.
BNPL has become a consistent part of many consumers’ financial behavior, so the fact that holiday shoppers are going in big for BNPL this year is not surprising. What is surprising, though, is the extent of their shopping. BNPL spending in late November and early December 2023 was 17 percent higher than BNPL spending during a comparable period in 2022. Furthermore, BNPL shoppers tend to spend about 20 percent more per purchase than shoppers who pay with debit cards.
Practical Gifts Are In
If there is anything encouraging about this year’s holiday shopping trends, it is that this year’s gifts are less expensive and more practical. There are fewer novelty gifts, fewer costly kitchen gadgets with a narrow range of applications, and fewer hand-held back massagers for the man who has everything. This year, Santa’s elves are busy building dishwasher safe, reusable drinking straws, replacement pairs of walking shoes, and other such items the purpose of which is to enable the recipient to have a frugal 2024.
Work With a Debt Lawyer About Avoiding a Tailspin of Debt During the Holidays
A South Florida debt lawyer can help you make wise choices about BNPL purchases and other short-term solutions that could backfire and leave you in an even more vulnerable financial position. Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC in Plantation, Florida to discuss your case.
Source:
investopedia.com/more-black-friday-shoppers-used-buy-now-pay-later-even-as-they-shunned-big-ticket-gifts-8406912
