UX Report for Sezzle: Interviews

Team 16: 4U

Authors: Alexa YoonSeon Yi, April Shin, Jesi Zhang, Sunny Kim

March 1, 2019

Word count: 2487

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1

Executive Summary 2

Introduction 4

Methodology 5 Target Population Recruiting Method Interviewee Demographics Interview Instrument Analysis Method

Findings & Recommendations 8 Key Findings 1 Recommendation 1 Key Findings 2 Recommendation 2 Key Findings 3 Recommendation 3 Key Findings 4 Recommendation 4

Discussion 12 Conclusion 14 Appendices 16 Appendix A - User Interview Protocol 17 Appendix B - Interview Transcriptions 20 Appendix C - Personas 46 Appendix D - Scenarios 49

Executive Summary

This report aims to analyze and examine experience of buy-now pay-later (BNPL) payment method for the millennials, particularly for our client’s product, Sezzle. After the initial stakeholder meeting with the client, the scope of this research is focusing on analysis of omni-channel user experience of both the client’s and competitors’ BNPL products and conducting tailored competitive analysis of industry key players.

In this report, our team addressed the challenge by conducting in-depth qualitative interviews with the target users. The method used was 6 in-depth interviews; one stakeholder interview and five user interviews. The general recruiting process of each interview started from screening and recruiting optimal interviewees; we particularly aimed to interview users who are 1) BNPL users, and 2) non-BNPL users. Based on interview processes, we found insightful findings and recommendation through numerous team discussion and interpretation sessions. This report documents our methodology, key findings, and final recommendations. Key findings and recommendation summary are as follows:

The results of our analysis show these findings:

1. Users consider benefits, perks, convenience, and reliability when it comes to choosing their primary payment method. 2. Non-BNPL users do not like the feeling of having more payments to make overtime. They would rather prefer to pay the entire amount upfront or not purchase the product at all. 3. Non-BNPL users believe they would end up spending more money when using the BNPL method. 4. Purchase motivation depends on which merchant websites are partnering with what types of payment methods.

Based on the findings, we recommend Sezzle to consider these four areas:

1. Focus at least one of these considerations as users did not see great benefits of using Buy-Now-Pay-Later payment: benefit/perks, convenience, or reliability. 2. Diversify payment period options for users; current bi-weekly 4 payment installment plans would not satisfy various users’ needs. In this regard, add more options where users can choose the billing cycle catered to their personal finance situation. 3. Provide convenient ways for users to be in control of their budget and spending. 4. Be more specific when defining target population; millennials are too broad, and we found there are many different behavioral or motivational patterns among millennials.

Introduction

Sezzle is an alternative payment platform that increases sales by providing interest-free installment plans at online stores. When consumers pay with Sezzle, their purchase is split into four interest-free installments. The customer must pay 25 percent of the purchase cost upfront to eliminate risk of fraud or non-payment. The remaining 75 percent is paid biweekly over the next six weeks. Currently, Sezzle is directly competing with global split payment products such as AfterPay, Quadpay, Affirm and Klarna as they try to capture the installment payment platform market.

After the initial client meeting with stakeholders from Sezzle, we learned that Sezzle seeks to 1) provide seamless omnichannel experience and 2) improve usability of the ecosystem in order to provide a best-in-market experience for shoppers.

In this stage of the project, we approach to the problems by understanding the target population through interviews. Thus, we aim to examine shopper flows of target population, the millennials from age 18 to 35, and delve into their shopping experience with different payment platforms.

The following three key questions were developed to be answered over the course of the six interviews (one stakeholder and five potential users):

1. How do people at age 18-35 usually pay for stuff in general when purchasing products online? 2. How do people at age 18-35 think of buy-now pay-later payment? 3. What motivates people at age 18-35 to use buy-now pay-later payment?

Methodology

To achieve our research goal of discovering how to motivate novice “install payment method” users to use Sezzle, we conducted 6 interviews, including one stakeholder interview and five user interviews.

Target Population

To understand payment and online shopping behavior and values of millennials, we recruited interviewees who are between 18-30 years old and regularly shop online. Additionally, to explore behaviors at different financial status and lifestyle, we recruited people who are both students and working full time. All interviewees have previous experience purchasing products online. They use credit card, debit card, and Paypal as their main method of payment.

Recruiting Method

The research team recruited participants within its members’ social groups, based on a collaborative effort to ensure a diversity of interviewees. While the team initially considered contacting interviewees in other ways, they found the most effective way to find interviewees that meet the criterias and ensured a group who shop online often and currently use various payment methods such as Paypal.

Interviewee Demographics

We chose five participants from our potential user list with different demographics, job title, and online shopping experience. The fundamental information of participants is listed in Table. 1.

Gender Nationality Title Age Description

1 Male American Architect 27 Credit card & Paypal user, Never used Sezzle

2 Male American Engineer 25 Credit card & Paypal user, Never used Sezzle

3 Male Korean Engineer 29 Credit card & Paypal user, Never used Sezzle

4 Female Chinese Architect 25 Credit card & Paypal user, Never used Sezzle

5 Female American Student 20 Credit card & Paypal user, Never used Sezzle Table. 1. Participants information

Interview Instrument

We created an interview protocol (Appendix A - User Interview Protocol) before conducting interviews. This helped us to clearly organize what questions to ask in what sequence.

First, we wrote three overarching key questions for interviewers to clearly understand the goal of the interviews. Then, we asked warm-up questions to encourage participants to tell the story of their online shopping experience. We asked participants about their past online shopping experience and preference on different methods of payment. To end the interview, we expressed our gratitude for participating in the interviews.

Analysis Method

To organize findings and insights, we transcribed all interviews (Appendix B: Interview Transcriptions). To obtain valuable information from the transcriptions, we each read through the interview transcriptions and highlighted insights.

We conducted several team discussion sessions as a group to generate key insights and categorize those into higher-level groups to understand the overall perspective of non-users and to come up with recommendations.

We created a set of personas and scenarios representing the target population in their diversity across online shopping experience, value, and preference. (Appendix C: Personas & Appendix D: Scenarios)

Findings & Recommendations

Key Findings 1: When choosing primary online payment methods, users consider benefits, perks, convenience, and reliability the most.

Non-users provided the feedbacks through the interviews that they did not see any great benefits of using buy-now pay-later payment.

Interviewee X stated that her shopping preferences and frequency highly depend on the benefits that she will be getting, such as discount coupons or special rewards. She prefers to use credit card when making online purchases as she would like to build credits and receive cash back offers at the end of each month. Interviewee G stated that she would be willing to try installment payments only if the payment process provides her better experience such as shorter time required to make purchases. Interviewee G also mentioned that she rarely shops on the unknown websites, and further, is not willing to provide her bank account information to the platforms that she believes are not reliable.

Recommendation 1: Focus at least one of these considerations as users did not see great benefits of using Buy-Now-Pay-Later payment: benefit/perks, convenience, or reliability. Also, make the overall process faster - especially when users are setting up the account.

1. Add benefits/perks such as an additional discount coupons, rewards or the possibility of building credits.

2. Improve the payment process with more conveniency such as initial account set-up (entering bank/card information). We suggest incorporating new technology such as QR code to help users experience faster payment process. Alipay can be a good reference. 3. Partner with well-known or reliable merchants, especially those who are popular among our target users.

Key Findings 2: Non-users do not like the feeling of having more payments to make overtime. They prefer to pay the entire amount upfront or not purchase the product at all.

Non-users believe that installment payments are burdensome as they have to make recurring payments overtime. Especially as the number of purchases becomes larger, consumers may start feeling that they are spending much more money.

Interviewee A said that making purchases with installment payments is similar to following subscriptions online. Both Interviewee A and D mentioned that they would rather complete their purchase with one time payment, because they have to keep in track of the upcoming payments. Especially, Interviewee A mentioned that monthly payments would make him feel like he is losing his money.

Recommendation 2: Diversify payment period options to choose from.

Our interviews suggested that millennials avoid using installment payments, because they want to either 1) pay in advance or 2) feel uncomfortable with scheduled monthly payments. Therefore, we recommend adding more options where users can choose the billing cycle catered to their personal financial situation, instead of merely offering the current bi-weekly four payment plan. For example:

1. Allow customers to pay the remaining 75 percent in advance to avoid series of payments overtime. 2. Add features that enable customers to alter their billing cycles from bi-weekly to weekly.

Key Findings 3: Non-BNPL users believe they would end up spending more money using the BNPL method.

Non-BNPL users believe that the platform deludes users that they have more money than they actually have, making users to end up spending more money. They believe smaller installment payments eventually add up to become a bigger financial expense that users don’t even realize. They believe using BNPL platform eventually promotes consumer-minded thinking and enable more purchases.

Non-BNPL users also believe that you wouldn’t know how much you have spent using BNPL method. For non-BNPL users who are working full time, interviewees indicated that they have regular monthly wage with a set amount of budget allocated for spending. An interviewee indicated he uses debit card to make purchase within his budget. Meanwhile, he uses credit card for amounts exceeding his budget and plans the spending for the upcoming month accordingly. They want to track and control their monthly spending easily so that they can be in control of their spending.

Recommendation 3: Provide ways for users to be in control of their budget and spending.

As non-users are hesitant to use the installment payment platform due to its limitations on monthly financial budgeting, we recommend Sezzle to provide ways for users to be in control of their spending.

1. Track your spending According to the interviews, non-users want to be in control of their spending habits. Users would be able to view the list of purchases they have made every month in which categories and see how much payment they have to make in the following month.

2. Limit your spending Users would be able to set a monthly budget limit indicating how much they have already spent and how much they have left in the remaining month. On a pop-up banner, Sezzle could alert users every time users go through sezzle to make purchase online. For example, if a user sets a $300 budget, user would be notified when he/she purchases a $50 product, indicating the current purchase amount and the remainder budget of $250.

Key Findings 4: Purchase motivation depends on which merchant websites are providing different payment method options.

Throughout our interview, we found that many interviewees shared different motivations in using payment methods, and it heavily depends on which merchant websites are partnering with what payment service platform. One of the interviews stated that, “even though a certain type of payment method gives me great benefits and perks, I would not start using it unless my frequently visited websites are not accepting the method.” Another interviewee also highlighted that, “I know Sezzle is partnering with Toby and several merchants, but I never used those websites; nothing really sounds interesting to me when BNPL advertise themselves”

More importantly, even though all interviewees fall under the category of millennial generation, everyone has different interest and motivations when choosing their primary payment method.

Recommendation 4: Analyze the shopping behavioral patterns of the target audience and strategically partner with target users’ frequently-visited websites.

Our interviews indicate that purchase motivation depends on which merchants are partnering with what types of payment service. This naturally leads to the questions of how partnership can attract different types of users and how important to clearly define targeting population. In order to address this question, we found that it is imperative to redefine the target users of Sezzle, instead of using the term, millennials. Millennials might be too broad as it refers to the generations born between the year of 1975-2000. Even within the millennials, users have very different motivations and behavioral shopping patterns when choosing payment methods. In this regard, our group recommends, first, be more specific in defining the target users. For example, one of our interviewees highlight that they are part of sorority and frequently visit Toby to buy dresses. For such type of user, Sezzle’s partnership with Toby or similar levels of merchants can play a significant role to start using the service. Once the target population is redefined, it might get easier for Sezzle to consider potential perks or benefits. For example, discounts for referrals can work much better for sorority girls who have a regular parties or meetings, compared to those who rarely buy clothes for special occasion.

In this regard, our group recommends that: 1) Re-define target users 2) Analyze the most frequently-visited websites of these target users, e.g.) what are the types of the websites that our target users visit the most? 3) Partner strategically with those merchants

Discussion

There are some limitations associated with our study. The participants were gathered during personal conversations with friends and friends of friends. Due to lack of time and resources,

the team wasn’t able to gather participants who currently use BNPL platform as their main method of purchase.

Some questions that remain unaddressed from our interviews are:

1. what specific perks or incentives matter the most to non-users (discounts, referrals etc.) 2. how millennials currently budget their monthly/weekendly spending for shopping.

Moving forward, we will conduct competitive analysis comparing Sezzle and main competitors including Afterpay, Quadpay, Affirm, and Klarna. As we have received contact information of Sezzle insiders, we will utilize them for further research.

Conclusion

In this report, we analyzed and examined experience of buy-now pay-later (BNPL) payment method from millennial generation, particularly for our client’s product, Sezzle. We first conducted six in-depth interviews including interviewing one stakeholder and five non-users, transcribed the interviews then extracted valuable insights. The four key findings are listed below:

1. When choosing primary online payment methods, users consider benefits, perks, convenience, and reliability the most. 2. Non-users do not like the feeling of having more payments to make overtime. They prefer to pay the entire amount upfront or not purchase the product at all. 3. Non-users believe they would end up spending more money using the BNPL method. 4. Purchase motivation depends on which merchant websites are partnering with what types of payment methods.

To conclude, Non-users value convenience and various benefits when deciding payment method. Most people use credit card for payment as those information are logged into the websites they frequently shop at. Budgeting is also an important factor to be considered as people plan monthly shopping allowance in advance. Our recommendations are listed below:

1. Add perks, improve the payment process for consumers and connect to reliable merchant. 2. Diversify payment period options to choose from. 3. Provide ways for users to be in control of their budget and spending.

4. Analyze the shopping behavior of the target audience and partner with frequently shopped websites.

The next step of this research is to conduct competitive analysis to explore potential features for Sezzle and compare ups and downs of other competitors that providing similar service as Sezzle.

Appendices

Appendix A: User Interview Protocol Appendix B: Interview Transcriptions Appendix C: Personas Appendix D: Scenarios

As the key findings from the interviews with five interviewees vary in ages between 18-35 and in different employment conditions, the team analyzed the overall user needs, frustrations and goals for targeting user groups and developed three personas - Lucas, Tina, and Dillon.

Associated with those personas, the team created two current scenarios for Lucas and Dillon when they use credit cards and Paypal to make online purchases. Then, we pointed out the potential challenges they may face during this process. In addition, the team created one ideal scenario for Tina, who uses Sezzle to shop online and walked through the steps she takes using this online payment method.

These personas and scenarios helped the team with brainstorming and organizing the recommendations as future references for the following steps for the research project.

Appendix A - User Interview Protocol

Overarching Question: 1.How do people at age 18-35 usually pay for stuff in general when purchasing products online? 2.How do people at age 18-35 think of BNPL payment? 3.What motivates people at age 18-35 to use BNPL payment?

Introduction Hi ______, thanks for participating our interview today. We are group 4U, my name is ______, and I’ll be conducting the interview today. We’re a student team from the University of Michigan School of Information and we’re doing some market research about payment services. Some of the questions might be a little personal, and will concern your lifestyle. Everything will be completely confidential. If you feel uncomfortable answering any of the questions, just let me know and we can skip it. The interview would take about 30 minutes. Do you have any questions so far? If you don’t mind, I’d like to audio record this interview; it will only be used internally, for the purposes of this research.

Warm-up Questions - Shopping Behavior (5mins) 1. Could you tell me about yourself: age, phone, major? 2. Tell me about the last time you shopped online. (type of products… etc) 3. What do you use the most for your mobile shopping experience, mobile application Vs desktop/laptop website interface? 4. What is your preferred form of paying when you buy something online? 5. Do you use different methods in different online stores? Why?

Online Payment Experience 1. Tell me about the most recent online shopping experience you made BNPL, tell me what the product was, and what was the payment experience? a. Walk us through the process / Describe the process of paying i. Was it a credit card or a debit card? Or any other types of payment? e.g.) PayPal, etc. ii. Tell us what you were thinking before the payment? During? After? iii. How long did it take? iv. Which parts were the most challenging for you? / what were your challenges during the process? v. Is there anything you find problematic about using online payment system?

BNPL Payment - only for current users

1. Tell me about the most recent online shopping experience that you made by “buy-now pay-later” installment payment method, and tell me what product you used? (ex) Afterpay, Sezzle, Bread...) a. Walk us through the process / Describe the process of paying i. Was this your first time paying with a “buy-now pay-later” payment? ii. Tell us what you were thinking before the payment? During? After? iii. Which parts were good in that process? Any frustrating parts? iv. Is there anything you find problematic about using “buy-now pay-later” payment? v. Which features do you use the most? vi. Which features do you use the least? vii. If you could add one another feature, what would that be? (any suggestion for the future improvement, or better experience?) viii. What motivates you to use this method?

E.g.) Can you tell me about how you could learn about this product? What their feelings, what’s their on mind, can you tell me more about their feeling/experience/(more open-ended questions) when using the experience? Is there something you wanted to discuss which we haven’t discussed thus far? Anything we haven't gone through? → let users can bring up something

BNPL Payment - only for non-users (perhaps mostly debit/credit card users)

1. Tell me why you are using the current payment method. a. What motivates you to keep using this method? b. Which features do you like the most? c. Which features do you like the least? d. Any suggestions for the future improvement? 2. Have you heard of “buy-now pay-later” payment apps like Afterpay, Sezzle, Bread? 3. Have you ever used BNPL payment? (Response: No) “Buy-now Pay-later” installment payment method is an (interest-free) installment plan that allows shoppers to pay for products overtime in sets of timeframe. a. Why have you not used this payment method? i. What do you like and dislike about it? Why? b. Which payment do you currently prefer for your online payment? (debit/credit or bnpl) i. Why do you prefer the current method of paying?

If time allows: 1. How do you think about “buy-now pay-later” payments? a. Do you experience any difficulties in this area? b. What would make things easier?

Wrap-up ● Thank you so much for taking your time to answer our questions. Every input you made for us is very important and will really help us in our future research and final deliverables for our client. As for the last part, do you have anything else that you want to add or ask?

Appendix B - Interview Transcriptions

Interviewee [A]

Hi, Andrew. Thank you for participating for an interview. today. I'm Alexa and I'm going to be conducting interview. We are student team from University of Michigan School of Information, and we're doing some market research about payment services. Some of the questions might be a little personal and will concern your lifestyle, but everything will be completely confidential. If you feel uncomfortable answering any of the questions, just let me know. And we can skip it. The interview will take about 30 minutes and you have any questions so far?

Okay, tell me about your current job, and who you are.

I'm 26 years old. I am an electrical engineer contracted by the government, specifically the Department of Health. I graduated from University of Illinois with a bachelor's in electrical engineering. I was born in Chicago, raised up in Korea, and came back to the states for school. And that's pretty much it. I like soccer. I like food.

Okay, cool. Can you tell me about the last time you like shot online? like talking about what you bought and when it was? does this include browsing or specifically buying?

Buying stuff.

I usually tend to buy books online. And the last time I bought a book was two, three days ago. For an autobiography. It's mostly amazon for either clothing books, or just small kitchen things. That might be but that's pretty much it.

Was it two, three days ago that you bought the book? What was it just for your reading? Like, was there any specific reason you bought the book?

Yeah, just a personal reading. I'm reading a book club or anything.

Okay. in terms of your mobile shopping experience? What do you use the most like, mobile app? Or, like, desktop laptop for shopping?

Yeah, shopping online.

Usually, I do desktop because I want to do my research first before I buy anything is because, you know, especially like clothing or shoe sizes. You gotta like, look up, does this specific brand match this, like, you know, standard US size? Or like this, this shoe size? Magic? Typical? She was a bigger smaller than normal. So just having that researches quicker on the desktop. Make sense?

Okay. So when you're like buying something online, what's your preferred form of payment either PayPal if it's with another person, or if it's a site trusted like Amazon? I'll use this my credit card, debit card, eBay and stuff like that. Craigslist, I'll try to avoid that. You want to avoid information getting out to other people. You know, credit card number and whatnot. It's just a personal thing.

So you trust like big platforms like Amazon and other places to be more like, credible with those kind of information? pretty much.

Okay, well, the next question was going to be like, do you use different methods for different online stores? But you kind of explain that, so we'll talk about um, your online payment experience when you're shopping online. Tell me about the most you can think about the most recent online shopping experience. So first one is walk us through the process of buying that book. That's probably the last time last thing you bought. Walk us through the process and describe the process of paying for that.

Let's see, my last purchase was a book on Amazon because my purchase or through Amazon it's not those people I know. Obviously, Amazon has your credit card information stored I okay. Usually, if I'm not in a rush, I checked up and make sure it's the right number, make sure the informations updated. But I mean, since the credit card numbers say that makes it super convenient for me, just to say, hey, these these credit card uses address. So the book over there. so tell me what you were thinking before paying for the book. And like, while you were paying, and after, like what I was thinking, yeah, like, it was like a hassle or easy.

Well, before I'm thinking, God, please, I hope shipping start, like half the cost. That would really suck and I'd be paying like, $20 or a book. No, it wasn't a hassle. I mean, a lot of sites I end up like, not saying my credit card information on Amazon's what others do. Like, I end up saving my credit card information. Other sides. I use PayPal on, you know, it's got to go through PayPal. So it takes like 1015 seconds. So that's, I mean, it's not it's just too casual. But Amazon

just makes it convenient during the process. Wow, I press three buttons. And I bought a book after I was saying. Yeah, I mean, I hope the book on time. I mean, Amazon's pretty good about that. But lately, Amazon's is a little weird. So. can you tell me about like, how long it took and if there were any challenges with paying for that to purchasing? Yeah, that specific experience like literally from the payment options are doing the research or from like, the research of wanting to payment

30 seconds.

So is there anything you find problematic about using that like buying stuff online and online on Amazon using your credit card?

No, I don't find anything particularly problematic I mean, if you consider companies that have been hacked of like the private information like Sony's been hacked. So that's why like, even if Sony if even if Sony company and I run by like Sony products on Sony site, I don't ever have my credit card information, say, but amazon for my knowledge has not been hacked. And it's one of those things you don't trust them until they like mess up. And at that point, am I gonna say my credit card information? So it's not problematic at all, at least for now. for Amazon.

Okay. Can you tell me about like the time you used PayPal?

You specifically either dealing with people or just like maybe like a one-time kind of things like, let's say shoes, limited time edition shoes, like Nike shoes with that kind of stuff. I'll use like PayPal and that kind of stuff. But with friends using PayPal is better than then Mo Mo. Mo gives that almost like person but much too. Personal feel. So last thing I bought was actually from a friend that he is actually going to this anime convention in California. So I gave him a list of what I wanted to buy. And he's going to ship it over to this page.

Okay.

Yeah. So you use it when you're buying it from like, other people, like not like what, specifically people's smaller organizations as opposed to, I guess larger?

Okay. Is there a reason why you use PayPal? Not? You're like, just typical credit card, debit card?

Well, credit card information is directly it's almost like a direct link. And PayPal is almost that middleman that will take the fault in case something goes wrong. You know, in the simplest terms, PayPal access, like he has to like my personal information.

So like, mainly, what you decide on your payment method is, it depends on like, how credible it is. And like, what they're going to do with your like, personally much.

Yeah, I mean, Uber and Uber. I use credit card Amazon a credit card. Yeah, smaller things. It makes sense. Also, I gotta pay pal balance. And I don't like it costs money to cash out your PayPal balance. So oftentimes, if I want to just use my paypal balance, I'll just like my paypal, you know, okay. Make sense. So now we're going to talk about the by now pay later payment. Like, that's like, are you aware of the service? Like after pay kind of thing?

I'm aware of payment plans for products? Yeah.

Currently, You are not using this application, so I can ask you some questions on like, their products. I wanted to buy that I consider using payment plans.

Okay, maybe.

Okay. Well, ask you like, Why you didn't use like that payment plan when you were purchasing, trying to purchase whatever you were trying to? what I would have to pay was the APR on it was ridiculous. And I'd have to file trying to buy a $2,000 product and that's a shot, just buy that out or pay a down payment of 1000 and do like, stop by the $200 the bed in the end, I would have to pay like 2600, 2007?

So like that interest? If there were no interest, would you?

Yeah, absolutely. If there was no interest, I mean, I think everyone, I think convenience is the most important thing, especially with funds, you know, if people especially people who work salary or people who are worth the same amount of hours, weekly, weekend and week out, been able to have like, you know, that constant flow of money. And all of a sudden, you know, if $2,000 goes on those, you know, the whole financial plan arrived, as opposed to, if you had like, 20, $100 payments, you know, you can plan for that ahead of time. That hundred dollars is that we probably, especially if you wanted to buy that product. So I think it just helps people plan for financial convenience.

Right, right. What kind of products were they like, the stuff you were looking at? computers? electronic stuff. so they were mostly like, higher price range?

Well, they mostly like expensive, they are expensive. I mean, there are 2000, $30,000.

Okay. Yeah, so it's not like your daily like, hundred bucks stuff, you know, your daily hundred bucks. So now, it's definitely not like my 500 day.

what feature do you think would make you want to use other than the no interest part of it, like, if you were to, not for like, on computer electronics, which in terms of price range there on the higher side there in the thousands, but for like, maybe for your book, or like something more casual purchase items, like, if there were to be a platform they are that offers interest free installment payment? Like, would you use it? And like, what would make you use it? Or would you not use it, and what would not?

I mean, there's a weird price range, right? Where you're just like, should I just buy it for me, maybe that's out of I gotta think of people of all incomes, maybe $100 purchase is too hard for some people living in the picture. But I'm thinking if it's $100, you should be able to buy a flat out, especially a if you want it and be if you need it. I mean, I don't know about any other features, I mean, the payment plan itself, it's gotta be above a certain price to warrant the inconvenience of, you know, adding things because I think a lot of people nowadays have so many subscriptions. And people are starting to slowly realize holy crap. Even though Netflix is like 10 bucks to lose 10 bucks. Spotify is 10 bucks. You know, all those services are 10 bucks, by paying for every service still close to fit for me, I gotta pay like 100 bucks monthly, just for all like my services that they bought. And then I'm thinking to myself, well, even if the payment plan is convenient for whatever product products are purchasing, it's not worth it. Because it almost feels like I'm losing more money out of it. You know what I mean? As opposed to just pick up, just go with all the payment plans go. So see, you feel like it's kind of, well, initially, just looking at individual transactions, it feels like, oh, not a lot, but then adding up to it. Like a lot of people can get carried away with that kind of stuff. I mean, I imagined myself, I'm not the type to shop too much. But I know a lot of people that buy something, and that they had a payment plan for everything. I mean, even if it was just $1 a month, they would pay like 50 bucks a month for stuff

Okay, last question. So like, so I'll talk to you again, like, so we're working with a client called on Sezzle. so they work they work with merchants, like online clothing stores, like, you know how like Urban Outfitters they have after pay, it's kind of like that, When you purchase things you can choose different months and like, pay it off, kind of basically, there's no interest, but it's not specifically for expensive, like electronics or anything. It's basically just like, for clothes and things like that. I mean, you could use it for those. But like, it's only for products that are with the website that they said was working with. So it's like clothing and whatever. So we're working with them to see if they're like, how the current user experiences. And then like, if there's any other additional features that would make millennials to use this platform more often. So that's the general like, just have it if you So do you have anything like you would like, what would you make you want to use? okay, so my complete idea about payment plans is it's not an expensive products, you clearly should not be buying it. And I think especially a lot of more. So what I'm thinking the general trend is, people with money are generally the more intelligent people are not a, you know, save money and that kind of thing. And like, as opposed to just people with less money will sign it will be less educated by me. That's what I assumed the general trend is, and I figured to myself, you know, if you don't need if you don't have the money for the closed, you're not just having a payment plan enables, like, it's almost enabling. And I think that's the wrong mentality, despite

the thing, you know, no interest kind of thing. But I mean, it promotes a very consumer minded they say, Oh, you know, you wouldn't, let's say you have a $500 paycheck, and then you're buying like a $300, why do you wouldn't you normally buy a $300 code if you had to buy flat out. But I mean, technically, if, yeah, if you use if you pay, like $30 payments over 10 months, you're still losing $300 that you technically shouldn't have spent? I don't know, I think it's, it's sort of a weird psychology that people in that makes people think they have more money that they actually have, which is, you know, kind of the catch, like, I don't know, catch catch 20. What's that phrase?

Anyway, that's the that's the catch, right? Like people who want to use payment plans, often more than not, if it's not an expensive product, like a car computer don't have really the money to be spending on it. And people with money more than often would like to just buy it out and rather have like, another worrying like industry. So I think the business model itself and having like, okay, the thing that's not specifically for expensive product is really flawed and really nation to a really nice amount of people. You know what I mean? Like, maybe lower middle class people who want to spend

Yeah, okay. Make sense. Okay, I think we asked all the questions. Do you have any questions? Do you have anything to add?

Nope.

Okay, thanks, Andrew.

Interviewee [D]

Hi Dillon, thank you for participating in our interview today my name is Sunny and I'll be conducting an interview today. we're a student team from the university of michigan school of information and we're doing some market research about payment services some of the questions might be a little personal and will concern your lifestyle. everything will be completely confidential. if you feel uncomfortable answering any other questions just let me know and we can skip it. the interview will take about 30 minutes. Do you have any questions so far? No.

Can you tell me about your age and like your background like your job and major what you did? I'm a 27 year old male working as an architect in Dallas, Texas. I recently moved here half a year ago from Kansas City and now working full-time here.

Can you tell me about the last time you shopped online? Yes, it was last week.

What did you buy it? and why did you buy it? I got an email saying there was a 50% off flash sale and so I kind of browse through on Urban Outfitters. so I just thought “why not take a look” and so I did a quick look through and I saw some items that looked nice and it was cheap since it was 50% off. so I said okay why not just try I'll just get them. if I don't like them i can return them. so I did it pretty quickly, it was probably all in like a 30 minute span.

So it was unplanned? No, it was unplanned for sure. It was just a random email and it said today only 50% off. And i said okay.

When you're buying stuff online do you mostly use your phone or your the computer? Mostly computer.

Can you tell me why? Either it's easier to see that way or... I mean sometimes... I usually if I'm checking my email that's it's more visibly there because usually the stuff like sales or something like that or stuff that I subscribe to doesn't really show up in my primary folder. So those things won't show up on my phone but if I go to my email online then it'll be there.

So your main way of shopping is when you get an email? Unless I'm specifically looking for something, yeah. Otherwise it's just like “oh I heard there's a sale, let me go check it out.” so an example of that would be... you know kind of like.. Have you

heard of slickdeals? There’s a website called slickdeals.net and it basically all it is is just a website where it just hosts a bunch of different sales going on daily and it'll tell people and people can kind of upload and be like “oh this is a good sale oh this is a bad sale” that kind of thing. you can comment and stuff like that.

Oh interesting, so that's why you use your like computer for that because you can ask us more information that way and it's hard to just look at things on your phone? For the most part, yeah. primarily I think it's just easier to use on a computer and usually I think just in terms of... I'm not really using my phone mostly to shop or anything. I'm usually using it to like talk to people or do something else rather than look for something to buy. Also, depending what the item is if I buy something online.. let’s say it's my clothes I'm buying shoes or something like or more like a desk or something at that, I'll kind of look at reviews be like “oh this kinda has a good review or bad review” and that's easier to do online.

Okay. so when you're shopping online, what's your preferred form of payment? Usually a credit card. some places like Urban Outfitters I have my Paypal is actually linked. I don't remember why the first time I ever did it, it was from a long time ago but I do use people for that since it's the same thing. It’s just using my credit card information to do it for me.

So you use Paypal because it already has your information, so that's the reason why? Yeah I just set it up long time ago, I guess.

What about for cases when you don't have Paypal set up for other online shops? So like Amazon or something else?

Yeah, If you are buying something from a totally new website that you’ve never used before, then would you set up a Paypal account? It would depend on I guess maybe how often I would see myself using. I mean if it's like a one-time buy, probably not. but if it's like “oh maybe I'll use this more often in the future”, then I'll set up like link it to my PayPal account to be able to use there that kind of thing. so I guess for frequency would matter. okay so do you use different payment method for different online stores? so is that regarding like card or versus Paypal? Or some sort of other service?

Yeah, it's more like your card versus like those kind of platform. like do you have preference on different websites for that? I guess for me no not necessarily since what's charging my PayPal account is my credit card. The only difference would be a debit card versus credit card I guess. so it's like what I want to think basically paying for it now or just like paying for later type thing.

What differentiates those two in terms of where you go? where you use your debit card where you use your credit card. like what's the difference? when do you debit and when do you use credit? So for me it depends on budget personally. In terms of like “oh I’ve spent this much already” let me use my credit card and then you know I'll think about it and budget for the next month. versus I got some cash to spare and I can just take it on like debit card right now. so if you have the money in your hands you used your debit but then if you don't have it in your budget you spend it on credit and the calculate it for the next month? I guess in a sense. It's basically just whether I want to be for it right now or later. yeah, not necessarily a website specific or like product specific type thing.

But when do you want to pay later? When it's expensive? Yeah it could be like if it's like oh this is gonna be a lot on my current or like… let's say you know the first of the month is coming up and I have to pay rent or pay the bills, then it's like um it'd be more responsible if I don't have to not, not more responsible, it's just, it's better if I pay for this with my other finances later - rather than be hit right now, I guess. okay so we'll move on to the next section. this is about your online shopping and payment experience so I'll ask you some questions on the last time you shopped online and like I'll ask you to like kind of walk through the process and ask some specific questions about it. so tell me about your most recent online shopping experience and tell me what the product was and walk through the process of buying it and paying for it. Like that entire process?

Yes. Okay, so it was actually probably like Monday I think. This week Monday that I bought two clothing items from Urban Outfitters. Basically I got an email about a sale and thought why not just look through see what I like. I saw couple of things I was interested in, and so I would just basically create tabs and look. Then I would just kind of see if there are different colors or anything. Or if I guess it's kind of like a price, I guess, budgeting wise like “okay, I don't need this now it's kind of expensive” or “this seems good I'll keep it for now.” Then almost kind of kind of process of elimination I'll just do these two. And then kind of look at the sizing, the fitting and “okay, that's good,” and put into my cart and then bought it.

Tell me more about the payment process. Uh, so on there it'll say...kind of like your list of options of payments or It will be like sign in or are you a guest? sign in but either of the options you use, it'll take you so a form of payment that’ll say like debit, credit or PayPal. And it says to mark one. if you pick the PayPal one, then it'll tell you to sign into your PayPal account

Which one did you use? Tell me about what you used.

I think this one I actually just use my debit card.

So did you login or do you have an account on there? Yeah I actually logged in. I didn’t realize my debit card was on that account. Honestly, It was on there so I was like “okay I'll just use this.” and I thought “okay I'm enough money” basically a budget for this month that I could just like use it.

Oh, so that’s why you used your debit card? Yeah.. and it was also kind of already conveniently there.

Since it was already saved in there, you just used it? Yeah

Tell me about what you were thinking before the payment, during the payment and after payment. I was just like “Oh, my debit card information is already here. okay I'll just use this because it's convenient.” For me, it was like conveniently there already. I didn’t have to sign in additionally into the Paypal or something. how about during the payment like when you're actually buying it? It was just like “okay it’s done.” that was basically it. I'm done. I didn't put too much thought about it after.

How long did it take to like pay for it? Tell me about like the buying and then like paying. It was pretty quick. okay like I said I signed in and then it was already there and it even had my address information. So I was like okay and it was pretty much click, click, click. I don't know.. Two minutes, a minute?

So you didn’t have to like type in a name any information? No. Only signing in. and after that it was done.

Do you find anything problematic about that online payment system? I mean, I don’t really see.. like to me, it's just very convenient and and that's my biggest thing. You know, it's just very easily accessible, I don't need to take a lot of times like to look up an information or something it's already there. so I don’t have to find my cards to look up the numbers.

You probably had to enter in all that information the first time you're like putting that in, right? yeah like if that's a hassle you wouldn't use it? because you value convenience? I don’t know if the idea of BNPL is to put all those information necessarily? I guess I don’t really know how it works. To me, it’s just you are paying in installments.

You still have to set up your account though.

I mean for me, I already have a paypal account. So wouldn't it just do it from there?

So does BNPL not use the Paypal account I already have? In order for you to use it, you have to login to that specific.. like it's called Sezzle and you have to log into Sezzle and enter in your card information in there. And you have to like make their account but you don’t have to do it every time. You have to do it one time.

So if you have a Sezzle account, if you go to a website that works with Sezzle, you will see “pay with Sezzle” and since you already have an account, you just click that and click okay. But you said you don’t like putting in information because it’s inconvenient for you. Sure

So, in terms of setting up those account, Does that matter? Even though it’s just one time thing, does that matter that you have to put in a lot of information when you sign up for those services? Probably not necessarily. Does sezzle one do that kind of installment plans payments? Okay, so using Paypal as an option, You can pay for all at once using Paypal or you can pay for it in installments. So is Sezzle only installments or do both?

Just installments. Just installments? See, I think that option matters.

Can you tell me more about it? Let's say something is like really expensive, then you might be more willing to pay for it installments right? using that Sezzle account. let's say I already set up the Sezzle account but I’m going to use it to pay for something. But let’s say it’s something small, let's say I’ll buy a t-shirt for ten dollars. I'm not gonna pay for it even if I have a Sezzle account. I'm not gonna use the Sezzle account to pay for an installments when I can just pay for it all at once.

What would want to make you use those platforms? When would you use it? I mean I guess if it’s only if I really needed something like something really expensive. I would have to be only to that magnitude (like a car) because something like clothes or shoes, doesn’t have that big of an impact on me. Because it’s not like I need those clothes. It’s like “Oh, I just kind of want it but I don’t need it. And if it’s that expensive, I probably don’t need it.

So you just don’t buy it if it’s expensive… Yeah. Like the value isn’t worth it to me necessarily.

What kind of feature do you like or not like about these type of platforms? Probably just the fact that you can just log in and they’ll have your information. And Like that option or if I just want to pay for it at once. It’s flexible in that sense. And it does what I needed to do basically just store my information and then pay when i’m ready to do stuff.

You would only use platform if you have to buy something expensive or something that you need right? Yeah.

But if it’s something that you want, you still wouldn’t use it if there was an option to do so? Umm..

Like on Urban Outfitters, they had an option to use afterpay but you just used you debit card. So even if there’s an option you just wouldn’t use it? Because it’s not expensive and it was within your budget that you can handle? Yeah, most likely. Because to me, why pay for installments… because it’s almost like.. I mean you do own it but you are still paying for it. That’s kind of, for me it’s kind of like I don’t want to keep thinking about it. I just want it to be over with, which is I think a very common millennial thought… is that they are very quick. You know it’s like “Oh, that’s done.”

Just get it over with? Yeah, kind of.

Could we talk about why you haven’t been using this type of platform? If it’s so expensive that I have to use payment installments, then I better really need it. Otherwise, it's like it's not worth.

Are there any suggestion for future improvements on these platforms maybe possibly making you want to use it? Umm.. maybe like a reward system? like you know how like.. some cards will be like “oh if you use this for like restaurant or then you'll get these kind of points.” So maybe if you use these platform for these kinds of products, then you'll get these kinds of points.

Maybe if you get like more discount? Yeah something. Because otherwise, for me, there’s no valid reason to use it unless it’s like I have to. Or I’m in a situation I have to buy something.

Is there anything you think is problematic about this platform? Umm... I think the idea is cool. And I’m sure other people have used it. I think it’s just a matter of whether people want to keep that idea.. For me it’s just like if I do 4 monthly payments, then I have to keep thinking about those 4 monthly payments. I feel like it’s more personal rather than those platforms itself.

So you feel like you have that lingering payment you have to make? I mean yeah, I guess. It’s tedious. Like... why worry about it when I can just take care of it?

Interviewee [G]

Hi. Gigi. Thanks for participating today. We are group 4U, My name is Jesi, and this is my teammate April, we will be conducting the interview today. We’re a student team from the University of Michigan School of Information and we’re doing some market research about payment services. Some of the questions might be a little personal, and will concern your lifestyle. Everything will be completely confidential. If you feel uncomfortable answering any of the questions, just let me know and we can skip it. The interview would take about 30 minutes. If you don’t mind, I’d like to audio record this interview; it will only be used internally, for the purposes of this research. Do you have any questions so far? No.

Are you within the age 18 to 35? Yes.

Tell me about the last time you shopped online. The last time I shopped online was on Amazon and I bought film for my film camera.

Ok. So what do you use the most for your mobile shopping experience? Do you use mobile Application or desktop laptop Website interface? Laptop Website.

What is your preferred form of paying when you buy something online? Credit card.

Okay. Do you use different method on different online stores and why? It doesn't depend on the store. It depends on like how my money is allocated and like my accounts... like that'll depend on what card I use.

Could you tell me more about it? Like sometimes I think I have two banks that I bank with. So I have like debit and credit cards from those. So like if one month I use one credit card a ton all and if I'm online shopping all used the different no other credit card. Yeah. So I'm not just like wiping out one of my accounts.

Okay. Could you tell me about the most recent online shopping experience you made, tell me what the product was, and what was the payment experience? through the process? Describe the process of paying, Was it a credit card or a debit card? So the question is what was my most expensive online purchase?

No the most recent. Oh most recent. The roll the film for my camera. It was I think like 15 dollars and I paid through the Amazon Website with my debit card.

So tell us what you were thinking before the payment? Emm.

Like how do you feel when you use the debit card to purchase? I didn't have like any fear because Amazon is like a really trusted service and I've used. I've used Amazon a lot over the years so I've never really had much of an issue with them and paid.

Okay. Could you also tell me about your most recent online shopping experience without using debit card directly but some other online payment method? I'm not usually doing it. Oh. I use paypal. When I had somebody who had like sent me money over PayPal, and I wanted to buy a pair of sneakers off of ebay so I paid. Like the balance in my PayPal.

So do you link your card to Paypal since you mentioned only pay by balance? I think I have my debit card linked to it in case I need to put money back into my account but I won't pay through PayPal unless there's a balance like I'll just put in my card directly unless I know that I have like money in PayPal that I want to spend.

Could you tell me why is it like you prefer to pay by credit card? I would just like to have. I don't really like to have too many accounts of everything because I forget passwords and then I forget if I even have accounts for things so I try to keep them basic like PayPal Venmo. I'm trying to think if I have my credit card linked to anything else. Emm yeah I would think that's it for late payment services.

OK so how long did it take when you pay by paypal? How long do you take me? Like the total to complete the transaction?

Yes.

Probably like a minute.

What is the most challenging for you? Of what?

Of online payment method you use. Oh. I think it's just I don't do it because I feel like it's going to. Like disorganized like my finances and stuff like that and I'm already pretty tight on money so I feel like if I only put charges on my debit and credit card that I can see how much it's been deducted. Like really clear. I will like that'll help me not spend as much I guess.

So is there anything you find problematic? No not at all because I use Venmo all the time to send money to people I know and I haven't I don't have any issues just like online payment specifically.

So what motivates you to keep using this method like credit card? I just I don't know I've just gotten very used to paying with my debit and credit card for everything like I have to. And like if I'm I'd say like 90 like 95 90 like maybe 90 percent of everything I buy is on my credit card because I rarely have cash. And somebody like the only time I'll have cash is like when my parents give me cash when I see them. But other than that like I'm just super limited to just those two cards.

Do you concern your personal credit so you keep using the credit card? Oh I the reason my dad gave me a credit card was so that I could start making like building credit. Yeah. Like you don't really want to give me a credit card. But he did want me to have bad credit.

So what features do you like the most? Of what?

Of whatever the method you use. You were talking about debit and credit card. It's convenient I use their mobile apps. So I have like the Chase debit card and an American Express credit card. And so I have those two. Yeah I have those two apps on my phone and like if I buy something if I buy something expensive I like that I can just open the app and see how much money I've spent and like how how much I have left. Also if you lose cash. It's gone. If you lose a debit card.. I lost like many credit cards lost over the years. And so with the chase out early American Express that I found like I'm endorsing them. You can like order a replacement

card and it comes like immediately. So I always have it you know. But there's also one big thing that I like about. I only use other methods only if the item I'm buying is most conveniently bought with one of those financial services back. But at the same time I like using credit card over anything else because if you sign up for a good card you can accrue points. And the points I used for travel, and also when you sign up one when you sign up for one you get a bulk load of points. If you spend a certain amount of money and chances are you're going to spend that certain amount of money either way. So you might as well use this form of payment and get rewarded for it because it's equivalent to let's say maybe close to a thousand dollars.

Yeah. And what feature you like the least? About credit cards? You don't know how much money you're spending because it's so easy to swipe. So I keep having my credit card. It's just kind of a good thing to flex on people. I think it's just I use them a lot. And like somehow I could make my wife put all my stuff in my backpack. And so sometimes I'll put it online shopping on my bed and stupid and I'll have to go if I better to get my backpack to grab my credit card. So it's not something that it's like oh I just love it and I know that it's like you know it can be like one of three pasta.

OK so any suggestions for making a purchase of credit or debit cards? I like Apple Pay a lot of people connected Apple Pay. Oh I guess we haven't talked about that at all. Actually I use it on my phone. I know it's a purpose but just the numbers I really like if I wanted to say things that make Pfizer make insulin on my phone it's kind of a hassle. That's the only reason. Like I would want to like have something that I could just say link to credit cards with. And then if I think I'm on my phone or I'm on my computer and I get automatically connects. Not every merchant takes it, but jumping off of that. There's Apple Pay that you can use like I bought stuff on my phone from Web sites using Apple Pay. So I can have my cards and I will pay. And then you see that's more on the merchant side than the credit card side because Amazon if you want to buy something off Amazon on your phone you look it up in a custom. It takes less than two to three minutes to checkout if you have it saved. I do have my credit card saved on that stuff.

So do you usually save your card on merchant website? No I don't. I only save my card for like places I know that I am constantly buying stuff from. Because I just don't to like having a couple of my credit card linked and like forget about it. Like if I buy something at one time and then I never go to that Web site again like I would. Freak out about the account with the credit card and then if somebody hacks you. I like credit cards more for security because you can always contact your credit card company let's say it's MasterCard

and say hey this is a fraudulent purchase. Please reimburse me. And they'll just charge off your account but if it's a debit cards the money's probably already out of your account.

Oh so credit card is safer? And especially if you have like a good credit card like if you get a good credit card if you go after and stuff like that you play customer service. There were six times that I've lost my card. Like I literally just call it. Just like look at their phone number call. And You can also book traveling from your credit card. You can do like a million things.

Have you heard of buy-now pay-later payment apps like Afterpay, Sezzle, Bread? Yeah. I think they're cool but depending on the interest. They can definitely is a good thing to use but... are we giving our opinions on them?

Buy-now Pay-later installment payment method like Sezzle is an interest free installment plan that allows shoppers to pay for products overtime in sets of timeframe. That's cool.

Then why have you not used this payment method? I don't like having hanging death stuff that I have to pay. I'd rather just if I have the money to buy something I'd rather just pay it right now. So I don't have to worry about it down the line. It's kind of like just like some people like having that. Some people don't. It's kind of just a personal thing. If I'm trying to buy something now like Saddam tried to buy something for a hundred dollars now. Yeah splitting it splitting into four payments of twenty five dollars like that would be easier but if I can't afford something for 100 dollars now. I'm probably not being able to afford it. Four hundred dollars in like a month. What I'm done all payments. So it's like. I feel like it would just be an excuse like I try and stay away from it because I feel like I would like incentivize myself to do it. Oh well if you can afford this because you could pay it later you know. But like you're still paying for it.

Yeah,but you mentioned before that your sister used it before? She has used it before. But she has a job. She has a job now. I don't have a job. I just get money from my parents. Honestly. They give me like a certain amount of money per month. And then I have my own savings from what I worked over the summer but my sister now has a job so she has like 20 dollars. Yeah. She has income every week so she can afford to buy clothes.

Which payment do you currently prefer for your online payment? Why do you prefer the current method of paying?

It's just what I've gotten used to. I think it's convenient allows me to keep track of my spending pretty easily. Also like that's where our parents funnel money into. Yeah.

How do you think about buy-now pay-later payments? I don't think they are bad. I think for someone who is in a great financial state and really like on top of their finances I think it's like totally ok thing to do. Like if you want to not pay for something right now. It's also different for certain kinds of products say you're buying a car and you want to do this feature buy now pay later. They haven't. They don't call it that but it just holds financing. You want to finance a car. That's what you do. So there is a point to doing that. Let's say a car fifty thousand dollars and you want to pay it over three years. If you don't pay it all upfront that gives you money to invest. And if you invest that at a higher rate than the interest rate then you'll just be making money and you'll be able to pay it off. So like for big purchases if you really know what you're doing with your money then it makes sense. But like for little things it probably is catered more towards like consumers who can't afford it and who are kind of living on like a week to week paycheck.

Yeah I agree. What would you think will make it easier? I don't need it's mean you could it easier. I just think it's something that. Not like that I feel like people would like to be like oh this is such a great idea. They're like now they're not really processing like that they're actually paying for it now. I think it's like. They're just go and look at the price tag from one payment and not remember that there is four or five or six of these payments that they owe you know. But I don't think there's anything that people could do like directly to improve it I guess.

But don't you think credit card is also buy now pay later? Oh yeah. It is essentially the same idea. ButI feel like you kind of you know you're signing up for like you know like at least. All right judges well I feel like most people who are getting a credit card they're like you know they're going to resolve it today. Well I don't know it's more like the Taubman institution you know that like it also like if you don't pay your credit card like there is like a specific way that they're going to penalize you like the good faith is going to come after you. And your credit good credit is going to get back. To full life with these payment apps it's like if I don't pay something like what happens you know be like I'm not giving them my social security number so they can stuff on my credit.

No you have to link your bank account. When you do a purchase, after you check out it's just like Paypal. In the platform you need to choose whatever bank you would like use and add an account.So it is linked to your account and they automatically take the money from your account

each month. So then one thing I would improve is not having to put my bank account because I don't put my checking or I don't like the routing number or the checking them around anything except for like when I have to. Like I almost like god like financial Scam or whatever. Like a few years ago. So ever since then I've just been like super strict lately not you know like not putting important numbers or data or information that's mine you know.

Okay. Thank you so much for taking your time to answer our questions. Every input you made for us is very important and will really help us in our future research and final deliverables for our client. As for the last part, do you have anything else that you want to add or ask? No.

Interviewee [X]

Hi Xinmin, Thanks for participating today. We are group 4U,My name is April, and this is my teammate Jesi, we will be conducting the interview today. We’re a student team from the University of Michigan School of Information and we’re doing some market research about payment services. Some of the questions might be a little personal, and will concern your lifestyle. Everything will be completely confidential. If you feel uncomfortable answering any of the questions, just let me know and we can skip it. The interview would take about 30 minutes. If you don’t mind, I’d like to audio record this interview; it will only be used internally, for the purposes of this research. Do you have any questions so far? No.

Could you tell me about yourself. Are you within the range age and age range 18 to 35? Yes I'm twenty five.

Tell me about the last time you shopped online. Maybe that's last week I bought a pair of sneakers.

When you bought the pair of sneakers. What do you use to pay for that? I used to Paypal and which is my credit card.

Okay. Could you tell more about your feelings on the overall experience? It was nice. I found the shoes on Foot Locker or finish lines. So that's so that's a pretty big company so I don't have to worry about if they have fraud or anything. So and PayPal is also a big company and I've been use it for five or six years. I totally trust them and and those are a pair of affordable sneakers to me. So I guess that's just very normal online purchasing experience for me and nothing special.

Ok. So what do you use the most for your mobile shopping experience? Mobile Application or like desktop laptop Web site interface which one do you prefer to use? I think I prefer computer because... Well, sometimes I prefer a mobile interface because you can download the app from the app stores. So I guess that it can be of that cannot be a fake app. So I know my money will go to somewhere safely. Because there can be some fake Web site if you're using a computer. So sometimes I would rather use my phone but computer will be more convenient because I can look at a bigger screen and I don't I can save the web side when I'm

done purchasing for future reference. So I guess both of them are good options but it depends on my mood.

Do you mean that like you feel like using the laptop is better for browsing like more information? Yes.

Mobile have like smaller screens and mobile sometimes but you track the mobile application but sometimes you feel a little bit unsafe while you are searching or lying by a laptop? Yeah. So using a laptop is definitely more convenient. And because I always feel they don't put all the information on the mobile application so I guess I can browse for the most information I can find on the laptop. So sometimes I might presume that there will be some coupons or big sale that you can find on laptop or not on mobile but oh and another thing is you can use a lot of promotion application. That's kind of like an extension to your browser like Chrome.

Ok. So that can save some money but you can't use that on mobile.

What do you mean saving money by chrome? So there is a lot of extension that you can download and you use it when you are shopping from certain Websites. So there will be a lot of cashback if you are using these extensions and they're totally free.

Ok. What is your preferred form of paying when you're buying something online? Do you prefer like you pay by debit or credit directly or like do you prefer it used to Paypal? So my my credit card is like associate with my paypal so when I'm using PayPal I'm technically using my credit card. It's just using a third platform. But when I use paypal I just feel like it's more safe because sometimes like if it's my first time using this website and I've never heard of it but it's on sale. So I want to buy it but I'm not sure if they're gonna like trick my money. So I just use paypal so my money will go to the third platform first and then. Like it's just it makes me feel safer.

Okay. Do you use different methods on different online stores? Sometimes if they can remember my paypal information I guess I'll just save it to my website accounts so I can use my paypal every time but only for very big website that I totally trust

because normally I'm pretty conservative and I don't save my account information on my paypal information for every Website. So are you saying you almost use paypal for like all of the online stores? If I can. That's my top preference.

Go back to the most recent online shopping experience you've made. Tell us what you were thinking before the payment during and after? So I would like to check if their payment website looks like a real Website not some fake Website. Even sometimes it's my first time shopping on that Web site. And I like to use PayPal a lot.

Ok. So how long did it take so they usually have like several options including credit card or like paypal? So I would just click the PayPal button and it would just take me to the PayPal then I had to sign in and then once I'm signed in I'll just check if it's a right amount of money. And then I would just say pay now and then it will take me back to the Web site I was browsing and then and then it's done and then it will give me thank you for your order service. Now they're only like two minutes so it's very convenient it's pretty convenient. The only password I have to do is the PayPal sign-in password which is not that comforting because if someone knows my PayPal password they can they can basically use my paypal and my credit card. So I'm always thinking about if there can be a final like six digit paying password even or even if I'm already sending in the PayPal they'll be better.

Which part were the most challenging you or what were your challenges during the process? So what I find inconvenient is that sometimes they have to let me refresh several times. Maybe the first time is checking your shopping cart and then the second refreshing is your address. And the third refreshing is checking your payment method and the force refreshment is checking our shopping cart again. But that's totally unnecessary. So if they can reduce that refreshment which can cause a lot of problems to the computer and the browser because sometimes you can freeze or my Website. It is not under a good condition and can cause problems so if I don't have to refresh for a for many times. They can just ask ones are you sure about the information.

Is there anything you find problematic about using a payment system?

Ok so I often shop on different Web site and sometimes I would just create an account. And sometimes I would just check out as a guest but oftentimes I don't remember if I had an account or I don't. Even if I created an account I don't remember my username and password. So if I don't save a screenshot to the final like thank you for your order your order number is us and you can track it from that page. I would just I feel like I'm totally lost from that order. So I feel like if there is a system or the payment method can help me keep track on all of my orders. That would be really great because I don't know if people do that. What I did and I don't think I don't think they have that because they just know that how much money you spend but if they can like automatically help you save the order information and or they can email me like what's your what was your orders from last months or something like that. So I would know if I have forgot I have forgotten one of my order and they didn't actually ship it so I can keep track on that.

Ok so you've been telling me that you never used to buy now pay later payment. No.

So tell me why you were using the current payment method? So I don't like to use the money from the future because I don't think that saves me any money.That's just making me feel more anxious and I always feel like so using credit card is also a kind of you know it is using our future money but that's very daily and I don't I don't usually buy things that I cannot afford but if I if I'm using the buy now pay later kind of stuff I would feel very anxious and I don't feel like it usually those kind of websites are or are tricking you into spending more money and they have so many slogans or or like buy now pay later this slogan is very like makes me anxious.

Why do you like Paypal? What kind of thing do you like Paypal? Yeah. Everybody's using it. And the yeah I guess they're big companies. So I trust them and I guess like I said it's a third platform.

You also telling me that you think it's very convenient cause you don't have to tap your card number every time? Oh yes it does because I don't have to check my like type in my card number and they expect expiration date and I don't even have to type in my address because people help help you save it. And then I think if I use paypal for all of my online shopping and at the end of the month is

when I check my credit card checking so I can see how many money from PayPal. So I would know that I've been shopping online for how much this month. So that kind of like helping me separate steps separating the online shopping from daily payment so where features do you like the most.

So during all those experiences what feature do you like most from their product? Actually I don't log in unless I'm I'm spending money so I don't log in routinely like monthly to check how much money I spend through PayPal this month or something like that. And I think they send me email monthly to tell me how how how much money I spend on PayPal last month. So that's very convenient sometimes I would open that email and see if that's correct. So for their website I think their website is pretty straightforward. So like some shopping website takes me to the PayPal and I sign in and I log in and the and the amount of money will be on the very top of the page. So I would know how is it. Is it the same from what I saw from my shopping cart and my my shopping cart. And then you know and it tells me how many cards I have saved in the PayPal and I can choose the one I usually use. And sometimes I would not use that card. So that's very like that's on the very center of the page and. And then there is a page now button. So there are there isn't many stuff I have to read or I have to check. So I guess it's pretty simple.

What do you like the least? Sometimes you take a lot of time to log in and it doesn't make me feel good. And only one password. Sometimes I don't feel good about that too because I also use hourly pay. And they always ask for two passwords and one at the very end the very final stop before you go back to your website. So that makes me feel like it's safer.

So have you ever heard about buy now pay later payment apps like Afterpay Sezzle or Bread? No.

OK. And have you ever used by now pay later payment? No. Usually I have enough money for my card so I don't have to like struggling before the next meal or anything. And if I really want to buy something expensive I would like to make sure that I have the money before I buy it. And if I don't have the money eventually I will just give it. So it's

I mean when you use a credit card you measure it before like even though I'm paying by credit card it is like buy things by by using single training the future money but like is it like you never like you never want. Like for example when you earn like five dollars today and that credit card allows you to pay 10 dollars things you can store and then another five dollars tomorrow.

So you would never do that. You will wait until tomorrow because you need to make sure that you can pay back the credit card so you can have enough debit cards that you never do like overdraw or your credit cards like pay by now and you need to wait until the next month. You have enough money to pay back. Have you ever had the experience? Cause it's a very similar idea. No not really. I usually think I won't really wise money been there so I don't like to buy very expensive stuff. But yeah I would imagine if I have to buy like a very expensive flight ticket and I don't have enough money right now because it's not the end of the months. Yeah I might run into that problems because out I bought a three thousand dollars ticket several months ago and I had to pay back my credit card at the middle of the month. But luckily I had enough money from my from my account so I don't have to like wait for the end of the month for my paycheck. But I can't imagine that can happen when you do that you would never do that because if you have you have a situation like that you can probably use a fine I'll pay later so maybe one day.

Ok. So what do you like or dislike about it? So I've never used it before but imagining using it I would say the good thing about it is you can buy stuff that you really want and really expensive and you can pay it back later. You don't have any interest from it so it's different from the loans you have to pay back. One thing is true is that even you are paying it through four months or five months. They don't save money for you. I mean you didn't pay less money because you are using it.

So overall you say you don't like it. Maybe I'll use a sometime you don't like so which payment do you currently prefer for your online payment. Okay so that's going to be painful. Why do I need to put you in high school when you do home for the deal with our schedule. For sure we go through even in times of emergency anymore. How do you think about buy now pay later payments.So I think it's just like a different kind of credit card and I can think of like I can imagine it can help me to solve some problem when I really want to buy a buy an expensive stuff. And if this think from another way

you can actually control your your control your desire of spending money because if even if you have enough money for like this bag this purse and you spend your money on this purse and you still want to buy something else on the second and third months. But if you are using this buy now pay later method you will continuously telling you you still have your debt so you can actually controls you when the second months come. You are still going to pay back your money so maybe you don't you don't want to buy another same. So this way, a win win condition so you can save your money and avoid buying a lot of stuff every month. And you can actually buy your purse the first month. So maybe that's a good point. It's going to make this things easier or harder I would like to say if it contains the function of PayPal I would probably use it. But if I only like if it's only buy now pay later maybe I won't think of it when I when I want to buy stuff. So you want to have this choose from the people. Yes like I can pay something just by regular way I can pay it once and I can decide whether I want to pay 50 percent of it the first month and I want to pay like 25 person on those seven months. And the last 25 person on the cert months like I want to control it because maybe I earn a lot of money this month and I and I and I don't know if I can earn this amount of money next month. So I would like to have more control power on it.

Yeah I think that makes sense to me too. So thank you so much for taking your time to answer everything that you've made for us is very important and really help us in our future research and finding developers for our clients. At the last part do you have anything else you want to ask? No.

Okay great.Thank you.

Appendix C - Personas

Figure 1. Non BNPL user

Figure 2. Non BNPL user

Figure 3. Non BNPL user

Appendix D - Scenarios

Current Scenario (Lucas)

Lucas wants to buy a new pair of sneakers when spring comes. He goes to the Foot Locker local stores and finds the one he likes, but the store runs out of his sizes. Lucas is disappointed and talks to the salesperson. The salesperson tells him that ‘Maybe you could purchase on our website, and there are more sizes online.’

After Lucas gets back home, he opens his laptop and enters the site address of Foot Locker on the search bar. He fastly browses the website and finds the pair he saw in the store. He puts that to the shopping cart and goes to the Checkout page directly. Lucas never shopped on Foot Locker online website before. He creates a new account and enters his personal information including shipping address, billing address and chooses Ground free shipping as the shipping method.

Because he always concerns about building his credits by using his credit card to make any purchases, he chooses the payment method as the Visa Card and enters his card information. Even though he rarely shops online, he saves his card and address on Foot Locker website for future purchases. He finds himself trust the big company and feels tired on the long process of keep entering personal information.

Lucas goes to his bank account to check his balance immediately after finishing the purchase. It is more like his personal habit to review his financial state every time he spends the money on shopping. He also checks his overall spendings from the beginning of the month and calculates the amount he could spend on the rest of the month.

Ideal Scenario (Tina)

Tina is a junior college girl, and she has a crush on one of her classmate whose name is Jerry in secret for over one semester. One day she suddenly got an invitation from Jerry to be his dancing partner to the school prom. Tina is so excited and runs back home to look for the right dress to attend the prom, but soon realizes that she does not have one. Even though it is the end of the month and she almost uses all her money given by her parents, she still decides to lend money from her roommate and purchase one online for the most crucial day in her life.

She goes to the Tobi website and found a dress she really likes. The price is 30 dollars. In addition to the dress, there is also a 10 dollar necklace perfect match the outfit. She starts to hesitate if she should give up the necklace because her roommate promises her 20 dollars. ‘Anyway, the money is not enough.’ Tina tells herself, ‘ I have to find another way to make it happen.’

After Tina puts those items to the shopping basket, she saw ‘Sezzle’ under the payment method choices. She clicks on the button and reads carefully through the instructions. Sezzle allows her to pay by four installations without any interest in the following every two weeks. Tina is so excited because that is entirely within her budget limit. With this Sezzle payment method she only needs to pay 10 dollars on the day of purchases, and she will be able to spend 30 dollars using the money given by her parents on the next month.

Tina clicks the button ‘Purchase with Sezzle’ and that brings her to a new window. She creates a new account with Sezzle and sets up the password. Then she chooses Chase Bank, which is the bank she has the debit card with and links her checking account to her Sezzle account. After finally confirming this purchase, Tina waits for the page on pending for 10 seconds and the page automatically jumps back to the Tobi website with the ‘Thank you for your purchase!’ note and her order confirmation number.

Three days later, Tina receives her dress and necklace, and she looks beautiful on them. She is ready for the prom with Jerry. She is happy with the experience and decides to keep using Sezzle in the future.

Current Scenario (Dillon)

On Friday, Dillon receives an email from Urban Outfitters. It says they are offering a huge discount for winter shoes. He opens his laptop and starts browsing the website. Soon, he finds some products he was interested in but realizes that he has almost reached his monthly budget limit for clothing. Thus, before making a hasty decision to purchase the items, he decides to visit the retail store on Saturday.

Next day, Dillon visits the store, checks out the shoes and tries them out. Considering the range of the price with the discount, he feels confident that he can manage his clothing budget for the rest of the month. On the way to the counter, however, he finds out that the deal is only offered through online orders and is about to expire in 10 minutes.

He quickly opens the Urban Outfitters mobile application and checks out the product. he decides to use his credit card Because Dillon has downloaded the application but never used it before, none of his card information is in the list of payments. He feels too lazy to add his credit card and also concerns about inserting his credit card numbers into the system, so decides to use Paypal.

Before he taps on Paypal checkout, he glimpses over the option of installment payments from Afterpay. He thinks about trying it out to avoid running out of his budget. But he passes the option after imagining to pay thirty dollars every month; it would be demanding for him to keep in track of multiple payments for this one order. Then Dillon chooses Paypal in the list of payment options and logs into his account to finish his order. He is happy that he could successfully make his order online within 10 minutes before the deal ends.