Sezzle: 2021 Was the Year of Now

After nearly two years, the waiting game is finally over, says Charlie Yoakim, CEO of Sezzle. Consumers want access to goods and services now — and they’re increasingly turning to buy now, pay later options to satisfy their pent-up demand. Read his thoughts in the PYMNTS eBook, “In a Word: 50 Thought Leaders Sum Up 2021.”

For the first chapter of the last two years, we as a nation were stagnant. We waited, waited and waited some more for a future in which we could hug friends and family, return to malls or get back to the office.

Consumers spent a lot of time waiting over the last year. Waiting for items they needed to come in stock, waiting to take trips, waiting for stimulus checks to come in the mail. But now, as we turn the corner, it’s time for consumers to get what they want now. There’s a new normal in the way we’ve relearned to do certain aspects of our lives in the past 12 months — but more than anything over the past year, we as a community learned that our time is now. 

Time doesn’t stop for a global pandemic.

The digital payments movement swelled in the past year, as payment companies realized the importance of now and leaped at the opportunity to meet consumers on their own terms. Buy now, pay later (BNPL) introduced the ability to provide consumers with what they need now, by allowing them to save money over time and pay in installments, rather than waiting.

In the payments industry, BNPL had the spotlight this year. The use of BNPL globally during Cyber Week jumped 29% year over year, according to Salesforce data. Over 61% of respondents ages 18 to 24 said in 2021 that they had used a BNPL service — a figure significantly higher than the almost 38% recorded in a previous survey in 2020. 

According to Sezzle user survey data, the No. 1 reason shoppers are choosing BNPL is that they have the ability to pay only a portion upfront, but receive their purchase immediately. We have become a nation of instant gratification, whether that’s through receiving likes on Instagram or followers on TikTok — consumers can open their phones and receive gratification at the click of a button. This way of life spills over into all economies and industries — waiting is simply no longer an option, especially if you want shoppers to stick by your side.

The need for now became even more prevalent in a post-pandemic world. Many consumers are still wary of in-store shopping. Buy now, pay later is the star of pandemic payments and our future, because we take the waiting out of layaway. We take the fear, interest and debt out of splitting payments. We bring our shoppers exactly what they want, and we bring it to them now. 

This year was a year like never before, but we saw humanity come together to rebuild. Yet as we rebuilt, the exponential growth of digitality did not pause to consider a global pandemic. The digital growth continued, payments slid toward a cashless economy and gratification became instantaneous for consumers. As we go into 2022, I think we should celebrate the drive, determination and itch for now that 2021 brought us.