Modern Forms of Consumer Lending in Retail Trade

Abstract

Consumer lending is the main channel of interaction between the financial system and retail trade. The rapid development in recent years of the fintech industry on the one hand and of e-commerce on the other given birth to new forms of consumer lending that better meet the needs of modern digital consumers and bring additional benefits to merchants. The focus in the article is on consumer lending at the point-of-sale (POS), which is targeted and implies direct interaction between the lender and the merchant. Along with the analysis of the data on the development of the Bulgarian market of traditional forms of commodity lending (consumer loans for the purchase of goods on repayment), the article examines the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the business model, which is the basis of the relatively new and rapidly entering personal credit product known as „Buy Now Pay Later“.