UK buy now pay later space set for explosive growth, Butter research

The UK buy now, pay later sector will be worth £26.8 billion by 2024, a 175% increase driven by an increasing share of the e-commerce market.

That’s according to research from London-based BNPL venture Butter.

This estimates that 24.8 million of us opt to spread the cost of online purchases within the UK, 37% of the total population.

Digital and mobile wallets remain the most dominant form of e-commerce (32%), with debit cards (29%), credit cards (21%) and bank transfers (6%) proving more popular than BNPL at present.

However, according to Butter’s research, the latter is expected to double its market share to a total of 10% by 2024. This would see the value of the market increase by £17.1 billion, placing the total value of the sector at £26.8 billion.

Timothy Davis, Co-Founder and CEO, Butter, comments: “Millennials and Generation Z are fast becoming the predominant generations, both in terms of size and where economic spend is concerned.”

“This is likely to cause a further shift in consumer behaviour as these generations are already showing a greater tendency to adopt new methods of transacting via the e-commerce space.”

He adds: “Debit, credit cards and digital wallets will no doubt remain the preference for many, but the likes of pre-paid cards and cash on delivery as methods of transacting are likely to be resigned to the history books.”

“It’s in these areas that we will see BNPL take further market share initially, although as the process becomes more normalised, we expect the sector to increase in prominence on all fronts.”