Millennials using credit to buy fashion

A new report has warned about the growing use of credit options amongst young online shoppers, as data reveals that over a quarter of millennials have used such payment options, like ‘buy now pay later’ in the past 12 months.

Fashion e-tailers are driving impulse purchases with the use of these credit options, which offer online shoppers the option to try an item at home before paying for the order. According to GlobalData, a data and analytics company, those aged between 25-34 years old are most likely to use these options, with 27.5% using credit in the past 12 months, followed by those aged 16-24 (24.8%) and 35-44 (22.9%).

There is no significant difference between male and female shoppers, with 17.9% of men and 19.5% of women using credit to buy clothing and footwear online.

“As UK retail spend continues to shift to digital channels and away from physical stores, retailers are focusing on ways to break down the barriers to purchase online in order to drive up conversion and capture shopper spend,” Sofie Willmott, retail analyst at GlobalData, commented.

“One crucial barrier for consumers can be a lack of funds, so many retailers have recently introduced credit options such as ‘try before you buy’ (which gives shoppers 14-30 days to pay), as well as ramping up promotion of existing credit methods.”

But whilst ‘try before you buy’ options are boosting online retailers’ sales - Asos said the introduction of a Klarna payment method helped it post a 23% increase in UK retail sales last year - they are also encouraging young consumers to get into debt.

Not only that, credit options are also driving an increase in return volumes, threatening online retailers’ profitability.

“As well as having drawbacks for consumers, credit options will also cause problems for retailers, despite their positive impact on sales. The rising usage of ‘try before you buy’ will result in increased returns volumes and require retailers to be equipped to process returns quickly and make items available for sale again straight away so that potential sales are not lost,” Willmott continued.

According to a GlobalData consumer payments insight survey, UK consumers owe an average of £1,144 to credit card companies.

Millennials using credit to buy fashion - Globaldata

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