Gen Z and the new checkout: how young shoppers reshaped retail credit

Shoppers under 28 now account for 44% of instalment orders in the region, up from 29% two years ago — the fastest-growing segment in MiSPay's dataset and the most demanding one.

The growth itself is not surprising. What matters for merchants is what this cohort expects, and how little of it has to do with the checkout page.

Four expectations

Price clarity before the basket

Younger shoppers want the instalment amount on the product page, not after they have committed to a basket. Merchants who display a per-instalment price alongside the total see materially higher add-to-basket rates in this segment.

No surprises, ever

This cohort reads terms. Late-fee structures, refund timing, and what happens to a plan after a return are researched before the first order, often on social platforms rather than the merchant's own site.

Control over dates

The single most requested feature from this segment is the ability to move a due date. Not to delay repayment, but to align it with when money arrives.

Speed as a form of respect

A checkout that asks for the same information twice reads as carelessness. This is the group most likely to abandon at an identity step and least likely to return to a saved basket.

What the data shows

• 44% of instalment orders come from shoppers under 28

• 3.1 orders per year per shopper in this cohort, versus 2.4 overall

• 71% of their orders are placed on a mobile device

• Fashion and electronics remain dominant, but beauty and gaming grew fastest

• Late payments are lower in this cohort than in the 35 to 44 band

"They are not less careful with money. They are less tolerant of vagueness about it."

What merchants are changing

1. Per-instalment pricing shown on product and category pages

2. Plan terms linked from the product page, not buried in a footer

3. Returns policy stated in terms of what happens to the instalment plan

4. Checkout flows audited for repeated identity steps

The responsibility question

Growth in a young cohort invites scrutiny, and it should. MiSPay applies lower opening limits for new shoppers regardless of age, recalculates eligibility on every order, and caps the number of concurrent plans a shopper can hold. Limits increase only with demonstrated repayment history, and hardship cases reach a human reviewer within one business day.

The company publishes approval and late-payment rates by cohort in its annual responsible-lending report.

About MiSPay

MiSPay is a regional payments company that lets shoppers split purchases into predictable instalments and helps merchants convert more of the demand they already have.

For press enquiries, contact press@mispay.co.