Volume 2 - Issue 4, July - August 2026

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has emerged as one of the fastest-growing alternative payment methods in retail, allowing consumers to acquire goods immediately while deferring payment over short, typically interest-free instalments. As BNPL becomes embedded in both online and offline checkout journeys, understanding how well consumers actually comprehend the mechanics, costs, and risks of the product has become an urgent research and policy question. This study examines consumer awareness of BNPL services and the extent to which five commonly cited adoption-related factors—perceived ease of use, trust and security, financial literacy, discounts and value, and social influence—explain that awareness. Primary data were collected through a structured, fivepoint Likert-scale questionnaire administered to 200 retail consumers, and the data were analysed in SPSS using descriptive statistics, reliability testing, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression. Descriptive results show that awareness of BNPL's credit nature, fee structures, and repayment obligations remains low across the sample. Contrary to the hypothesised relationships, none of the five predictors—perceived ease of use, trust and security, financial literacy, discounts and value, or social influence—had a statistically significant effect on consumer awareness (all p > .05), and the overall model explained less than three percent of the variance in awareness (R² = .029). These findings indicate that ease of access, platform trust, promotional value, and peer influence are sufficient to drive BNPL usage without a corresponding improvement in consumers' understanding of the product's credit implications, revealing a usage-awareness gap. The study argues that BNPL adoption and BNPL awareness are largely decoupled constructs, and that closing this gap requires deliberate disclosure and financial-education interventions rather than reliance on market-driven usability or promotional mechanisms. Implications for fintech providers, retailers, and regulators are discussed, along with the study's limitations and directions for future research.

Narayanasamy P, Dr.V.Deepa,"Consumer Awareness of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Services" International Journal of Advanced Multidisciplinary Research and Educational Development, V2(4): Page(189-196) July - August 2026. ISSN: 3107-6513. www.ijamred.com. Published by Scientific and Academic Research Publishing.