Shoppers financing holiday gifts as inflation hits budgets

More holiday shoppers are putting off paying their bills with buy-now-pay-later apps, even financing lower-priced goods, according to new data on Thanksgiving spending.

Spending on such apps rose 1.3% on Thanksgiving, according to Adobe, while the average order value for purchases made with the apps declined 6%, according to Salesforce data.

Buy-now-pay-later apps like Affirm, Afterpay and Klarna “started as a way to finance bigger ticket items but have morphed into everyday purchases and for lower priced gifts as consumers think about the economy and their personal finances,” Salesforce vice president of retail Rob Garf told The Post.

At the same time, retailers are ramping up their discounts, with the average markdown reaching 31% versus 29% last year, Salesforce reports.

“After lackluster deals earlier in the season, retailers have now stepped up their discount game to pre-pandemic levels,” Garf added.

Discounts on toys were among the highest — as The Post previously reported — peaking at 34% off the listed price, followed by 24% off on electronics and computers and 14% off appliances and apparel, according to Adobe, which analyses online consumer transactions.

Online demand for strollers surged 133% on Nov. 24 — compared to the average daily sales in October — while demand for outdoor grills was up 131%. Demand for speakers and cameras was up 122% and 111% respectively, according to Adobe.

Overall, consumer spending rose by 9% on Nov. 24 to $ 7.5 billion compared to a year ago, but “much of that growth is driven by price increases not people buying more products,” Garf noted. “Shoppers are buying fewer items because of inflation.”

Black Friday spending is expected to rise a “modest” 1% to $9 billion, Adobe reports.

Meanwhile, Walmart is beating out Amazon this year in searches for Black Friday deals according to advertising technology company Captify, which tracks more than 1 billion searches a day from websites globally, according to a CNBC report.