There is no doubting the popularity today of Buy Now Pay Later, with a growing number of retailers offering this solution to their customers. And it’s certainly been a hit with consumers. In 2022, nearly 43% of European consumers used this type of payment, an increase of 22 percentage points since 2021[1]. A pioneer in the market, Oney is now a BNPL leader in France and several other European countries too. But what’s the secret of this success? How does it all work? We look at the answers…
Created in the 1990s, BNPL has taken off in the last few years due to the sharp rise in online retail, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, it provided €10 billion worth of financing in France (a 66% rise on the figure for 2019)[1]. Since then, its runaway success has continued and BNPL now seems here to stay.
The basic principle is simple. As an alternative to the traditional one-off payment, the consumer can have a product or service immediately and then make a series of scheduled payments, typically three or four. Its rise in popularity has certainly proved timely, given the current rate of inflation. With France’s consumer prices rising 5.1% in a year (as of May 2023)[2], people are becoming very careful about their spending, making BNPL a way of supporting your customers’ purchasing power.
