This Black Friday painted an interesting picture for the retail landscape. US shoppers didn't just spend more—they fundamentally shifted how they're paying. Buy-now-pay-later schemes saw a massive uptick as consumers stretched their dollars further while hunting for steeper markdowns.

What caught my attention? Christian Magoon from Amplify ETFs spotting fresh angles in the digital payments space. Makes sense when you think about it. Traditional payment rails are getting disrupted, and the infrastructure powering these deferred payment models is maturing fast.

The consumer behavior shift here isn't trivial. When millions opt for installment-based checkout options over credit cards, that's signaling something bigger about financial accessibility and the payment systems being built to support it. For anyone tracking fintech evolution or decentralized payment protocols, these retail spending patterns offer solid indicators of where capital might flow next.

The convergence of retail demand and payment innovation? That's where opportunities emerge. Whether it's the backend infrastructure or the consumer-facing applications, this space is clearly heating up.