As you probably know by now, as an online seller, I absolutely LOVE learning about my customers and statistics are amongst my fav reading material (True Crime is my other fav). So today we will be discussing online buyers favorite payment methods. Let’s begin!

First, we have to break down data by age, so for these statistics we are going to refer to:

Gen Z as 18-21 year olds. Yes, Gen Z birhdates go much lower, but legally speaking, you have to be 18 to make a purchase online. (Yeah, I know; My kids also use my card all the time to buy crap in MineCraft and Fortnight too)

Millennials: 23-38 year olds. This gen grew up with electronics.

Gen X: 39-54 year olds. This is me! I remember AOL instant messaging with a dial-up connection!

Baby Boomers: 55-73 year olds. “Ok Boomer” is the reason you’re alive today!

The question asked for this survey was, “If you were making an expensive purchase, what is your preferred payment method?”. Let me note that “expensive” was not defined, so “expensive” was left up to the survey-taker to interpret, which is great!

The chart below is super hard to read, but don’t worry, I will thoroughly review it with ya!

CREDIT CARD:

Gen Z isn’t a fan, but thank goodness because “Gen Z” only consists of 3-years worth of people (18-21) and it’s great to see that they’re not fans of driving themselves into credit card debt.

Shockingly, although it’s close, Millennials actually prefer Credit Card payments even more than Gen X. I really would have thought my generation would be way more into credit than Millennials.

But, as expected, Boomers still prefer credit far more than the other generations, which makes sense because that is the only payment method they really had (besides check).

PAY PAL

Pay Pal is my #1 fav payment method because my credit card numbers have been stolen so many times that I despise using my card on sites I have never bought from but I always feel safe with Pay Pal and Gen Z seems to agree with me. In fact, Z happens to prefer Pay Pal more than Credit too,

However, Pay Pal is heavily favored by Millennials. They like it so much that it is their 2nd fav payment method of all time!

My generation, the cool X’ers, don’t seem to be too fond of Pay Pal, which makes me a rarity.

And lastly, the Booms don’t mind Pay Pal but they have several more-preferred payment methods.

FINANCING (Buy Now, Pay Later)

Generation Z likes it more than credit cards but less than Pay Pal.

Millennials like it just a tad more than Pay Pal.

Gen X is pretty much a tie with Millennials.

And Boomers aren’t really a fan, but do use it.

MOBILE WALLET

The youngsters love this! Both Gen Z and Millennials are big fans. This means they love pre-loading their credit cards onto their mobile wallet (app) and not having to fuss and fumble with cards.

Gen X: I’ll admit, when Samsung Pay was doing a promotion that allowed you to earn gift cards to Apple Bees, Sephora, etc just by paying with your phone, I friggin loved it. THEN, my local stores stopped accepting it! Seriously! 7-11, Kroger and the other places I shop somehow began flat-out blocking Mobile Wallet so I gave up. Regardless, my generation isn’t really crazy about it but doesn’t dislike it.

Boomers are like WTF? They have little interest.

And the last payment method was listed as “OTHER”. “Other” includes a random mix of everything from “Cash” to old-school checks to money orders to loans to “borrow from family”, remortgage and more.

Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, Boomers preferred “Other” which is a primary mix of Cash and Check.

LET’S REVIEW WHAT WE LEARNED:

Fav Payment Methods By Generation:

GEN Z: Mobile Wallet with no close second place.

MILENNIALS: Mobile Wallet with no close second place.

GEN X: Financing with all other options being a close tie for second place.

BOOMERS: Cash or Check. Credit Card comes in 2nd place.