Data for Thanksgiving weekend shows consumers shopped at encouraging levels, but underlying details about spending patterns suggest this may not have been the economic boon the administration believes.
According to Adobe Analytics, U.S. consumers spent $6.4 billion on Thanksgiving Day and $11.8 billion online on Black Friday, both record highs and up significantly compared to last year.
But Salesforce data, cited by Forbes, found that order volume fell by about 1% year over year, while average selling prices were up 7%—indicating that much of the growth was caused by inflation rather than any uptick in shopping enthusiasm.
What’s the difference between the buy now pay later thing and regular credit card usage?
BNPL is generally for people who are too high a risk to put it on their normal credit card. It’s also normally configured to auto draft from the relevant bank making it hard to default on. Americans needing BNPL is an indication of the weakness of the economy.
Speaking as someone who does use the BNPL from time to time for discretionary spending: If you pay it in 4, then its 0% interest and a much smaller piece of your pay check.
Spending $25 over 4 pay checks is a lot easier to do than $100 all at once. But this only works if you A - Only have 1 BNPL plan going at a time, & B - Actually pay off your BNPL in 4.
I don’t have any personal experience, and the story doesn’t go into detail.