I listened to an NPR podcast a few days ago that discussed “buy now pay later” plans.
Basically, it’s what I did last year when I offered a 10-part payment plan my Copy Riddles program:
1. The course normally costs $997.
2. for a few days only, I offered a 10-part payment plan: $97 today, and 9 more monthly payments of $100, adding up to exactly $997.
I ended up making a nice number of sales of Copy Riddles that way, and payments trickled in, without fail, throughout this year.
The podcast I listened to says “buy now pay later” has spread to all parts of the economy in past few years because of a new breed of companies that provide this kind of financing as a service.
Unlike credit card companies, these “buy now pay later” companies offer payment deals that add up to exactly the same price or something very close to it.
Because this is all happening in place of regular credit card payments, it has cost credit card companies billions of dollars in lost processing fees and interest payments.
Of course, credit card companies hate this, and are battling these new startups that threaten to eat their lunch.
But even if credit card companies end up successful in driving these “buy now pay later” companies out of business, there’s nothing preventing you from offering such a payment plan yourself.
The whole reason this new system has appeared is that customers love it, and end up buying way more than they would otherwise.
“Yes but,” you say as you look up from your glasses, pen in hand, eyebrows arched, “is that a good thing?”
The NPR podcast clearly tried to give this “buy now pay later” thing a sinister, manipulative tint.
They started out the episode by featuring a dumb and out-of-control 20-year-old girl, who ended up buying a bunch of overpriced bikinis, designer tights, and sneakers using these plans, because it all felt effectively free, until the payments started arriving in a pack.
All I can say is that the two times I ran “buy now pay later” plans, I saw that a bunch of people who bought were people who are successful and who I assume have enough money.
I further assume they bought because the payment plan made it psychologically easier to get something they already wanted, and not because it tricked them into buying something they couldn’t afford.
In other words, maybe “getting people to buy from you more easily” and “keeping dumb and out-of-control people from buying from you” are two distinct topics, rather than a single concern.
And now, entirely unrelated to today’s clickbait subject line:
I’d like to remind you of my Daily Email House group, where the mission is “Use your email list to pay for a house.”
I’m planning some exciting things for that community soon. In the meantime, I keep sharing stuff in there related to list growth and list monetization for free, including some stuff that I should really be selling. If you’d like to join us inside Daily Email House: