For many customers, living paycheck to paycheck and racking up credit card debt has long been a reality. Consumers frequently had to make difficult choices about whether they could spend money on pleasures and when they needed to trim their budgets before the epidemic became "these uncertain times" the unofficial watchword of advertisements throughout the world. The epidemic increased the stakes regarding the negative effects of living beyond your means, making it harder and harder to justify using credit cards to pay for anything outside necessities.
It's hardly surprising that retailers have resorted to fintech firms to assist them (and customers) achieve that crucial moment of sale given the supposedly declining purchasing power of consumers. Fintechs have been critical in altering the "typical" way we handle money during the past 10–15 years and returning control to customers. Therefore, merchants resorted to businesses like Affirm, AfterPay, ePayLater and others that are transforming the (not so contemporary) world of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) purchase when they needed a solution to give customers the confidence to buy online.
The concept is straightforward: by spreading out payments over a period of time with little to no interest, items that were previously difficult to justify within fixed monthly budgets may now be made. Installment payments have been around for a while; they really predate the contemporary credit card. Fintech firms were already operating in the internet retail sector before the epidemic, but COVID heightened the urgency with which individuals required alternate means of payment.
