{"id":3731261,"date":"2026-05-15T04:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/?post_type=study_posts&#038;p=3731261"},"modified":"2026-05-18T14:32:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:32:48","slug":"pay-later-is-becoming-the-tiebreaker-at-checkout","status":"publish","type":"study_posts","link":"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/study_posts\/pay-later-is-becoming-the-tiebreaker-at-checkout\/","title":{"rendered":"The Financing Factor: How Pay Later Availability Changes Where Consumers Buy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Consumer financing impacts each shopping decision differently. Its impact concentrates among younger consumers, active users of pay later options and higher-consideration purchases where shoppers are still comparing choices. That makes the story less about average demand and more about where financing has the power to change outcomes.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"lh-sm fw-bold\">Consumer Financing Choice<\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"lh-sm\">Travel Pull<\/h3>\n<p>Credit card installment plans have their strongest influence in travel. Among millennials, 64% say merchant-offered installment availability affects where they book, making travel one of the clearest examples of financing shaping merchant choice.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lh-sm\">Boomer Gap<\/h3>\n<p>Older consumers are far less responsive to financing. Just 4.7% of baby boomers and seniors say installment availability influences their travel bookings, showing how sharply financing\u2019s effect falls off by age.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"datawrapper-chart-bZRqv\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" title=\"Percent of consumers who say availability of installment plans is very or extremely influential on merchant\/store choice\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/bZRqv\/1\/\" height=\"749\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" aria-label=\"Table\" data-external=\"1\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">window.addEventListener(\"message\",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(\"iframe\");for(var t in a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"][t]+\"px\";r.style.height=d}}});<\/script><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lh-sm\">Grocery Split<\/h3>\n<p>Financing has limited influence on grocery shopping overall, but it carries more weight among consumers already using fixed installments for everyday expenses. While 21% of consumers overall say installment availability influences their grocery purchases, the share rises to 40% among day-to-day installment users.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"datawrapper-chart-8zRrj\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" title=\"Impact of merchant-provided installment plans on merchant choice\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/8zRrj\/1\/\" height=\"533\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" aria-label=\"Split Bars\" data-external=\"1\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">window.addEventListener(\"message\",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(\"iframe\");for(var t in a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"][t]+\"px\";r.style.height=d}}});<\/script><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lh-sm\">Power Users<\/h3>\n<p>Heavy BNPL users are the most responsive group in the report. Among consumers who use buy now, pay later for both routine and discretionary purchases, 87% say the payment method\u2019s availability influences travel bookings and 86% say it shapes their purchases of event tickets and experiences.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"datawrapper-chart-nrZfC\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" title=\"BNPL\u2019s influence on merchant choice\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/nrZfC\/1\/\" height=\"512\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" aria-label=\"Split Bars\" data-external=\"1\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">window.addEventListener(\"message\",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(\"iframe\");for(var t in a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"][t]+\"px\";r.style.height=d}}});<\/script><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"lh-sm\">Care Shift<\/h3>\n<p>Healthcare stands out as a meaningful financing category for Gen Z. More than half, 55%, say merchant-offered installments influence where they seek medical or dental care, and 49% say the same for BNPL.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"datawrapper-chart-WWQTc\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" title=\"Top-ranked categories\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/WWQTc\/1\/\" height=\"988\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" aria-label=\"Grouped Bars\" data-external=\"1\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">window.addEventListener(\"message\",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(\"iframe\");for(var t in a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"][t]+\"px\";r.style.height=d}}});<\/script><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"lh-sm fw-bold\">Methodology<\/h2>\n<p>This Data Book is based on \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/study_posts\/financing-the-decision-how-bnpl-and-installments-reshape-merchant-choice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><b>Financing the Decision: How BNPL and Installments Reshape Merchant Choice<\/b><\/strong><\/a>,\u201d part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/series\/the-pay-later-ecosystem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b><strong>Pay Later Ecosystem<\/strong><\/b><\/a>\u00a0series from <strong><b>PYMNTS Intelligence<\/b><\/strong>. The report is based on a survey of 2,763 U.S. consumers conducted from Feb. 10-March 2, 2026, and examines how BNPL and merchant-offered installment plans affect where a consumer shops across 10 purchase categories. The sample was balanced to match the U.S. adult population by age, gender, education and income.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3734920,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","pymnts_footnotes":""},"categories":[66522,154928],"tags":[53057,48452,4954,4279,7118,156531,13328,9206,67958,164365,155059,67601,133069],"class_list":["post-3731261","study_posts","type-study_posts","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bnpl","category-pymnts-data-lab","tag-bnpl","tag-buy-now-pay-later","tag-consumer-spending","tag-credit","tag-digital-payments","tag-featured-insights","tag-featured-news","tag-news","tag-payments-intelligence","tag-pymnts-data-book","tag-pymnts-data-lab","tag-pymnts-intelligence","tag-pymnts-news","series-pymnts-data-books"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.2 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Consumer Financing: Pay Later Options Shape Merchant Choice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how consumer financing options, such as Pay Later plans, shape merchant choices, especially for younger consumers and travel bookings.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/study_posts\/pay-later-is-becoming-the-tiebreaker-at-checkout\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Financing Factor: How Pay Later Availability Changes Where Consumers Buy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/study_posts\/pay-later-is-becoming-the-tiebreaker-at-checkout\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PYMNTS.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pymnts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-18T18:32:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pymnts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/How-Pay-Later-Availability-Changes-Where-Consumers-Buy-Hero.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pymnts\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pymnts.com\\\/study_posts\\\/pay-later-is-becoming-the-tiebreaker-at-checkout\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pymnts.com\\\/study_posts\\\/pay-later-is-becoming-the-tiebreaker-at-checkout\\\/\",\"name\":\"Consumer Financing: Pay Later Options Shape Merchant Choice\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pymnts.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pymnts.com\\\/study_posts\\\/pay-later-is-becoming-the-tiebreaker-at-checkout\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pymnts.com\\\/study_posts\\\/pay-later-is-becoming-the-tiebreaker-at-checkout\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pymnts.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/How-Pay-Later-Availability-Changes-Where-Consumers-Buy-Hero.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-15T08:03:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-18T18:32:48+00:00\",\"description\":\"Learn how consumer financing options, such as Pay Later plans, shape merchant choices, especially for younger consumers and travel bookings.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pymnts.com\\\/study_posts\\\/pay-later-is-becoming-the-tiebreaker-at-checkout\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pymnts.com\\\/study_posts\\\/pay-later-is-becoming-the-tiebreaker-at-checkout\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pymnts.com\\\/study_posts\\\/pay-later-is-becoming-the-tiebreaker-at-checkout\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pymnts.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/How-Pay-Later-Availability-Changes-Where-Consumers-Buy-Hero.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pymnts.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/How-Pay-Later-Availability-Changes-Where-Consumers-Buy-Hero.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"Featured image for the PYMNTS Intelligence May 2026 Pay Later Ecosystem Data Book. 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