Buy now, pay later (BNPL) stats

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) services are having a moment right now but is the ease of making purchases a double-edged sword? Finder surveyed 32,771 Internet users across 23 countries and found that people from Malaysia rank 4th for BNPL remorse, with 22% saying they’d made a buy now, pay later mistake. This is above the global average of 17% and ahead of countries like Hong Kong (16%) and the Philippines (21%).

The most common Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) mistake in Malaysia is buying something impulsively, with 11.5% saying they’d made an impulse purchase. The next most common BNPL mistakes are overstretching their budget (2.9%) and paying a late fee (9.1%).

Women lead the way in BNPL mistakes in Malaysia

Women (22.7%) are more likely than men (21.8%) to say that they’ve made a BNPL mistake.

However, in 1 out of the 5 BNPL mistake categories, women were more likely than men to say that they’d made a BNPL error: buying something impulsively (11.6%).

As for those not using BNPL services, more men (15%) than women (13.3%) say they’ve never used a BNPL service.

People age 45-54 the most likely to have made a BNPL error

In Malaysia, those aged 45-54 lead the way in making BNPL mistakes with 27% saying they’d had a purchase issue of some kind using instalment payment services. The next group most likely to have a BNPL mishap was those aged 35-44 (26.1%), followed by people aged 55-64 (23.4%).

Global BNPL mistake trends

The most common BNPL error was making impulse purchases, with 10% saying they'd made a buy now, pay later mistake saying they'd bought an item on a whim. This was at its highest in Vietnam, with 24% of those in Vietnam buying items on impulse, followed by Thailand (20%) and Sweden (14%). Getting stuck with late fees was the next most common BNPL mistake, with around 4% saying they'd paid a penalty for not making a payment on time. Those surveyed in Malaysia were most likely to be slugged with buy now, pay later late fees at 9.1%, followed by India (9.08%) and Vietnam (8.7%). Going overboard on spending was also a somewhat common problem for those who'd made BNPL mistakes, with 3% saying they'd overstretched their budget. Respondents in Vietnam were most susceptible to overspending, with 5% of respondents blowing their budgets. Not too far behind Vietnam is Thailand (5.4%) followed by Italy (5.1%). Interestingly, 34.5% of people in Spain said they'd never used a BNPL service, closely followed by 32.3% of Mexicans and 26.3% of people in the US.

Men more likely to have BNPL remorse

Men are more likely to say they made a BNPL error than women, with an average of 18.3% of men saying they've made a BNPL mistake compared to 16.2% of women. In fact, in 14 out of the 21 countries surveyed men were more likely to say they'd made a BNPL mistake than women. The highest percentage of men staying they had buyers remorse following a BNPL purchase was in Thailand at 41.5%. The highest percentage of women making buy now, pay later mistakes was in Vietnam, with 38.1%.

• Methodology

  Methodology

  Finder surveyed 32,771 Internet users across 23 countries in March of 2021 asking them if they'd used Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services and if they'd run into some common mistakes. Due to the varying Google infrastructure in each territory, not all surveys were nationally representative. Where a nationally representative sample was unavailable, a natural fall/convenience sample was used. For these, Google didn't use stratified sampling but did apply weights to the survey results if the demographics of the survey respondents didn't vary too far from demographics data, as per the details of Google's survey methodology. The analysis of the results of the survey was completed using Google Data Studio, which weights the responses. The list of the countries studied, sample sizes and survey types are presented below:

  • The Australia Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a nationally representative sampling of 753 Internet users.
  • The Austria Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 1,228 Internet users.
  • The Canada Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a nationally representative sampling of 1,201 Internet users.
  • The Denmark Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a nationally representative sampling of 742 Internet users.
  • The France Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a nationally representative sampling of 1,532 Internet users.
  • The Germany Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a nationally representative sampling of 2,001 Internet users.
  • The Hong Kong Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 1,003 Internet users.
  • The India Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 2,502 Internet users.
  • The Indonesia Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 2,011 Internet users.
  • The Ireland Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 1,228 Internet users.
  • The Italy Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 1,506 Internet users.
  • The Malaysia Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 1,501 Internet users.
  • The Mexico Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a nationally representative sampling of 2,002 Internet users.
  • The Netherlands Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 1,201 Internet users.
  • The New Zealand Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 1,003 Internet users.
  • The Norway Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 1,202 Internet users.
  • The Philippines Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 2,004 Internet users.
  • The South Africa Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 1,503 Internet users.
  • The Spain Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a nationally representative sampling of 1,512 Internet users.
  • The Sweden Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 876 Internet users.
  • The Thailand Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 878 Internet users.
  • The United States Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a nationally representative sampling of 2,001 Internet users.
  • The Vietnam Buy Now, Pay Later survey is the analysis of a convenience sampling of 1,381 Internet users.

Image: Getty