i don't think its the price discrimination thing. cause it's the same price to buy on layaway at 0 interest. its actually cheaper cause you could lend the money in the interim and make the interest. interest rates are low and no one would realistically do that for retail purchases, but still
the buy-now-pay-later service gets fees from the retailer directly, about 5% per sale according to this. that's where the bulk of the money comes from. the article says fees are a minority of the revenues. is it worth it for the retailer? they still get 95% from each sale. so if the price stays the same, they lose 5% on people who would've purchased anyway, and gain 95% on people who wouldn't have purchased without buy-now-pay-later. so as long as there is 1 person who was induced to buy by buy-now-pay-later for ever 20 who buy-now-pay-later'd but would've purchased anyway, it's worth it for them
retailers may be raising prices in response to this; it is a positive demand shock. i doubt by very much, but i could be wrong
― flopson, Wednesday, 9 December 2020 08:39 (three years ago) link