UPI-based digital payment apps, which have been on a development trajectory even prior to the pandemic, are thriving in the new normal. A joint report by study firms Worldpay and FIS says 39.7% of India’s e-commerce payments have been completed by means of digital wallets in 2020 and wallets have now develop into the top on line payment system in the nation. With shoppers increasingly opting for digital transactions more than money ones, and with the simultaneous development in e-commerce and web penetration in India, digital payments are anticipated to continue on an upward trajectory.
The transition of tiny organizations to on line media has also led to this development. As per information by EY, UPI-based digital transactions have enhanced by 110% in volume and 109% in worth, from June, 2020 till June, 2021. For most payment instruments, like UPI, debit and cards, and these at point-of-sales, the ticket size had come down through the 1st wave.
Nilesh Naker, companion – fintech, EY, says more than the previous couple of months, even so, there has been a substantial rise in ticket sizes. Spends by means of UPI have seen a rise of 29% in the typical ticket size of transactions through the pandemic, year-on-year, from June 2020 till June 2021. “It shows that people are now comfortable using digital payments and willing to transact with higher amounts,” he notes.
Mahendra Nerurkar, CEO, Amazon Pay, shares that the enterprise launched the ‘Amazon Pay Later’ feature in April, 2020. “Since then, we have recorded two million customers using the feature on the platform with around 10 million transactions clocked till June, 2021,” he says.
Similarly, PhonePe saw 50% month-on-month development of new buyers on its app from April, 2020 till June, 2021. Karthik Raghupathy, VP, approach and enterprise development, PhonePe, says, “Last year, we improved the ‘Stores’ discovery segment of our app with the addition of a remote payment option, information on merchant store timings, and chat options that connect consumers with their local grocery shops, pharmacies and other essential service providers.”
PhonePe not too long ago launched a money on delivery (COD) option this month. Through a QR code, buyers can spend for COD digitally by means of the app at the time of delivery. “This will drive contactless payments for customers who are traditionally more comfortable with cash on delivery,” adds Raghupathy. PhonePe claims that its user base has grown from 200 million in March, 2020 to more than 300 million, at the moment.
Akshay Mehrotra, co-founder and CEO, EarlySalary and founding member, Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE), says, “Digital payments have become significant not only for online platforms but also for in-store shopping.”
Vivek Belgavi, companion and leader, fintech, PwC India, observes that with the lifting of restrictions and the economy opening up, there may possibly be a slight transform in customer behaviour. Digital payments will continue to be relevant even though, he says.
With WhatsApp Pay getting the go-ahead with a user-base cap of 20 million in November 2020, factors are most likely to get even more of a fillip mainly because of the sheer scale of WhatsApp as a chat platform. Naker says, “We expect a growth trajectory as high as 10-15 times that of the current UPI transaction market over the next three to five years.”