Chinese Consumers’ Attitude Towards the Installment Type of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) Based on Gender
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Leyi Yang
College:
College of Business and Public Management
Major:
Global Business
Faculty Research Advisor(s):
Min-chung Han
Abstract:
The Buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) market is rapidly growing worldwide, reaching $119 billion globally in 2022(Businesswire, 2023). Buy-now, pay-later program has some notable variations in its adoption and definition across different regions. In the United States, BNPL allows consumers to pay in four installments with no interest, typically with a 25% down payment and the remaining in two-week intervals (CFPB, 2022). In China, BNPL is referred to as short-term deferred payment that allows consumers to pay in one or a few installments (Bian et al., 2023). China has a $102.3 billion BNPL market in 2022(Businesswire), which includes a larger range of services, including the credit card type and the installment type of BNPL.
The credit card type of BNPL appeared in 2015, provided by companies like Ant Check Later and JD White Bar, functions similarly to credit cards, with monthly billing cycles for repayments. Installment-based BNPL, represented by companies like Lexin Maya and Watermelon Pay, divides orders into equal installments for payment. While the credit card type is popular in China, the installment type is still in its early stage. This study will focus on the installment type of BNPL, use the term ‘BNPL’ henceforth.
Gender differences exist in online shopping (Lin et al.,2018; Altaqqi & Shaouf, 2018; Rodger & Harris, 2003), like males are more likely to be influenced by perceived risk compared to females(Lin et al., 2018). Despite its growing popularity, little is known about the gender differences in BNPL adoption among Chinese consumers.
Thus, this research aims to answer the following research question: is there a gender difference in Chinese consumers’ attitudes and their intention to adopt BNPL?
Despite the statistics showing that China has a large BNPL market, the study for the BNPL in China is limited. This study aims to find out Chinese consumers’ gender differences in adopting the installment type of BNPL, based on the technology acceptance model. This study has four purposes: to investigate whether there is a gender difference in (a) usefulness, (b) ease of use, (c) perceived risk, and (d) attitude when adopting BNPL.
The study is constructed using the combination of a focus group interview and an online survey to measure the gender differences in attitudes toward BNPL.
This research will contribute to assisting BNPL to know better about their consumers as well as raising gender awareness when doing business by investigating Chinese consumers’ attitudes based on gender.