Hamburg-based business intelligence firm yStats.com has released a new report, “Global Buy Now Pay Later Market, Trends and Players 2022.” As per the report’s findings, the BNPL market’s growth potential remains strong, while competition is becoming more intense. Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm are revealed as the world’s top BNPL specialists, well-placed to benefit from the double-digit growth in BNPL sales through 2026.
Seamlessly integrated into the checkout process, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services have conquered the E-Commerce payments scene outpacing credit cards and most other payment methods by annual growth rate. At this speed, BNPL could account for a quarter of global online retail revenues in five years’ time, according to one projection cited in the yStats.com report. Gen Z and millennials are especially drawn to this payment method, allowing them to purchase items that would otherwise no fit their budgets, all the while avoiding credit card interest.
USA, Australia, Germany and the UK have the highest number of E-Commerce websites supporting BNPL payment methods, according to data cited by yStats.com. At the same time, recent surveys point to emerging economies like Indonesia, India, and Mexico as high-potential BNPL markets. More than one in three respondents in these countries admitted they would use BNPL offerings to pay for items they could not afford on the spot. In India, leading online retail marketplaces, Amazon and Flipkart, recognized this potential and started offering their own pay later solutions to customers.
The top three BNPL providers worldwide as ranked in the yStats.com report are Sweden’s Klarna, Australia-based Afterpay and Affirm from the U.S. All three boast a large number of customers, thousands of merchant partners and multi-billion dollar GMVs. During 2021, the top 3 recorded high double-digit growth numbers, led by Afterpay which nearly doubled sales compared to 2020. Facing intensified competition from non-specialist providers like banks and credit card networks, the three leaders use the growth momentum to expand their product offerings beyond BNPL. For example, Affirm introduced a debit card with instalments feature and Klarna launched an all-in-one shopping app featuring promotions, payment, delivery and returns.
