Retail sales nationwide increased 8.8 per cent for the nine months from May 2020, reports the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). By contrast to a 2 per cent average annual increase before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) sector has also boomed, reveals the latest Roy Morgan Digital Payments Report.
According to the researcher, 15 million Australians (72.4%) are aware of BNPL services. Afterpay leads the pack with a 70 per cent awareness, followed by Zip at 49.6 per cent awareness.
The two main players are experiencing competition from other providers, including LatitudePay, Humm and Openpay with their awareness reaching 20.3 per cent, 11.5 per cent and 11.3 per cent, respectively.
The beauty, health and personal care categories have been major beneficiaries of the BNPL boom and it’s not hard to see why.
Women are the key users of Buy-Now-Pay-Later services, says Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan Research.
“They have adopted the new fin tech digital payment services at almost twice the rate of men. While nearly a quarter of people aged 25 to 34 use the new services at a higher rate than any other age group.
“However, there are key differences between the different providers as, although people aged 25 to 34 are the most likely to use market leaders Afterpay and Zip, the second-tier services provided by Humm, LatitudePay, and Openpay are all more likely to be used by a slightly older demographic.”