Friend or Foe? How Buy-Now-Pay-Later Is Seeking to Change Traditional Consumer-Retailer Relationships in the UK

The provision of ‘buy-now-pay-later’ (BNPL) is changing relationships between consumers, credit providers, and retailers. This chapter develops a fine-grained understanding of the symbiotic dealings between these parties and discusses how their bonds may evolve given the intrinsic benefits and risks at play. In that respect, it is the nature of the functional and relational attributes that specific actors liberate through BNPL that frame their individual ‘wellbeing’ in this coopetitive ecosystem. The chapter also unmasks the range of potentially positive and negative outcomes amid the evolving associations. The individual outturns are inherently unequal, and there is considerable variance for actors—although the retailer consistently appears to be the weak, if not sometimes the weakest, partner. The research additionally highlights that BNPL providers’ efforts to create a consumption ecosystem that disrupts contemporary patterns have been fairly effective, as BNPL providers are consistently perceived as the strongest partner by UK consumers. The consumer appears to be the arbiter of which form of symbiosis is manifest and thus central to the ecosystem. It is clear that relationships will continue to shift, requiring flexible and active management between the network partners to ensure individual and collective survival and wellbeing—and ultimately determine the final nature of the BNPL ecosystem.