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A STUDY ON THE POPULARITY OF BUY NOW PAY LATER (BNPL) AMONG YOUTHS

AUTHORS:
Shaili Kumari
Mentor
Dr Varsha Gupta
Affiliation
Bachelor of Commerce, Quantum University, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. Pincode-247667
CC BY 4.0 License:
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract

The paper looks at the increasing use of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) as a short-term digital financing option for lifestyle-driven consumption among young adults in Tier-2 and Tier-3 urban areas in India. Descriptive research design was used in the study, which included a structured online questionnaire that was sent to youth aged 18-25 in the cities of Dehradun, Roorkee, and Saharanpur. Due to time and resource limitations, convenience sampling was employed and 104 responses were completely filled out and used in the analysis. There was a significant gap between awareness and actual use, with 76% of respondents stating they were aware of at least one BNPL platform, but only 33.7% had used one themselves. This marked a considerable gap attributed to financial concerns and incomplete knowledge. PhonePe Pay Later had the highest market share of 65.7% among active users. For the fashion and clothing category, 85.7% of spending was done with BNPL, which is a discretionary category and not one that is mandatory. Most importantly, 40% of the active users said they missed at least one expected payment and around 42.9% had little or no knowledge about late-fee structures. The results have clear implications for banking regulation and fintech governance, as financial literacy protection should be a feature of the checkout process, not just a place in the terms of service to which few users attend.

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Kumari, S. (2026). A Study on the Popularity of Buy now Pay Later (Bnpl) Among Youths. International Journal of Science, Strategic Management and Technology, 02(6). https://doi.org/10.55041/ijsmt.v2i6.105

Kumari, Shaili. "A Study on the Popularity of Buy now Pay Later (Bnpl) Among Youths." International Journal of Science, Strategic Management and Technology, vol. 02, no. 6, 2026, pp. . doi:https://doi.org/10.55041/ijsmt.v2i6.105.

Kumari, Shaili. "A Study on the Popularity of Buy now Pay Later (Bnpl) Among Youths." International Journal of Science, Strategic Management and Technology 02, no. 6 (2026). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.55041/ijsmt.v2i6.105.

References
1.Aggarwal, M., Nayak, K. M., & Bhatt, V. (2023). Examining the factors influencing fintech adoption behaviour of gen Y in India. Cogent Economics & Finance, 11(1), Article     2197699.https://doi.org/10.1080/23322039.2023.21 97699

2.Arun, T., Markose, S. M., Murinde, V.,

3.Kostov, P., Khan, A., Goel, V., Sethi, R., & McGarrell, R. (2024). Overview of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services: India– UK comparison. SSRN Working Paper. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?ab stract_id=4924971

4.Dwivedi, Y. K., et al. (2024). From cash to cashless: UPI's impact on spending behaviour among Indian users and prototyping financially responsible interfaces.    arXiv    preprint. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.09937

5.Goel, K. (2025). The rise of buy now, pay later (BNPL) in India: Are millennials falling into a debt trap? International Journal of Novel Research and Development,   10(2),   34.https://www.ijnrd.org/papers/IJNRD25020 83.pdf

6.Gopinath, G., & Jayaprakasam, K. (2026). Beyond the checkout: What shapes the BNPL narrative for young consumers in India? Journal of Financial Services Marketing, 31(1),   1–14. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41264-026-00351-0

7.IJLLR. (2025). The rise of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) models in India: Addressing consumer protection challenges in the digital credit ecosystem. Indian Journal of Law      and     Legal       Research. https://www.ijllr.com/post/the-rise-of-buy- now-pay-later-bnpl-models-in-india- addressing-consumer-protection- challenges-in-t

8.IU Jharkhand Journal. (2024). Buy now pay later – A comparative study about the awareness, perceptionandfactors influencing the usage of BNPL as a payment option. IU Jharkhand Journal of Managementand     Technology. https://journal.iujharkhand.edu.in/June- 2024/Buy-Now-Pay-Later.html

9.Kothari, C. R. (2004). Research methodology: Methods and techniques (2nd ed.). New Age International. https://www.newagepublishers.com/servlet/nagetbiblio?bno=001433
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This article has undergone plagiarism screening and double-blind peer review. Editorial policies have been followed. Authors retain copyright under CC BY-NC 4.0 license. The research complies with ethical standards and institutional guidelines.
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