Usage of the flexible payment method hit an all-time high on Cyber Monday, driving $1.03 billion in online spend (up 4.2% YoY), as consumers looked for greater flexibility in managing their holiday budgets. The vast majority of BNPL transactions are happening on a mobile device as well, at 79.4% share on Cyber Monday (vs. desktop). In an Adobe survey of over 1,000 U.S. consumers (conducted Nov. 2025), respondents said they were most likely to use BNPL for electronics, apparel, toys, and furniture purchases.
Source: Adobe Analytics.


FTFY
Most BNPL services don’t make classically hard inquiries, though - as I understand it that’s actually a big part of the problem, because they are able to skirt a great deal of the credit regulations put in place to prevent predatory lending (yeah those exist - fucking terrifying, isn’t it?) by not engaging directly with the credit agencies, instead relying on 3rd party consumer information data brokers of dubious reliability.