To that end, the company on Wednesday (May 1) announced the launch of Payment Streaks, a feature designed to let users of the company’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) offering rise through loyalty tiers by making consistent, on-time payments.
“The Payment Streaks program empowers Sezzle users by introducing a gamification approach to responsible payment behaviors,” the company said in a news release.
“Each successful payment made on or before its scheduled due date contributes to the user’s payment streak. As users accumulate streaks of on-time payments within a rolling 90-day window, they qualify for advancement to higher loyalty tiers.”
The program works like this: Each payment made on or before its due date counts as a “streak.” Users can reach the next loyalty tier after meeting the required streak count within a rolling 90-day window. And users who fail to make a payment can resolve that issue within the same day to maintain their existing loyalty tier.
According to the release, the program offers a variety of benefits to users, such as entries in monthly giveaways and bonuses for referring friends to Sezzle.
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PYMNTS spoke last summer with Sezzle CEO Charlie Youakim, who noted that for many consumers, “BNPL is a budgeting tool.”
Joint research by his company and PYMNTS Intelligence bear that out, showing that most people don’t see BNPL as a credit product, but as a way to manage cash flow. It’s a popular one at that, with 40% of BNPL users saying they would not make a purchase without that option on hand, or would opt to make a less-expensive purchase.
“For these customers, it becomes essential that some sort of financing is available, but [with BNPL], they’re diverting a flow of funds away from high-cost financing products to a very low-cost financing product,” Sezzle said. “It’s a big win for consumers.”
More recent research by PYMNTS Intelligence and Splitit found that BNPL is popular among consumers, especially older ones: 81% of baby boomers and seniors said they are highly satisfied with BNPL, while 86% of Generation X shoppers and 82% of bridge millennials shared the same enthusiasm for they payment method.
For younger consumers, it’s a different story. Sixty-eight percent of Generation Z shoppers say they are highly satisfied with BNPL.
“But it’s not just BNPL,” PYMNTS wrote last week. “Gen Z consumers are also less likely to be thrilled with merchant-card installment plans (62%) and even less so about credit card plans in general (57%).”
This could be due to a general uneasiness about taking debt, as Gen Z is also the lowest-earning cohort of any age group surveyed.
