65% of smalltown India now opts for digital payment: Survey

Smalltown India is fast going digital when it comes to payments, with nearly 65 per cent of transactions now being carried out using methods including UPI (Unified Payments Interface), cards and digital wallets, according to a survey report by Kearney India and Amazon Pay India, which added that the volume of such transactions in the big cities was around 75 per cent.

On an average, 69 per cent of all merchant payments in India are now conducted using digital means, said the report, based on a survey across 120 cities that had 6,000 customers and 1,000 merchants as respondents. The survey also shed light on the use of various digital payment formats in terms of age groups even as cash spendings all over the country continue to see a gradual decrease.

According to the report drawn from the survey, millennials of the nation — aged between 25 and 43 — and Gen X — aged 44 to 59 years — were leading India’s transformation towards a digital transaction culture. The nation’s Boomers, comprising citizens aged 60 years and above, were higher on card and wallet usage than the other age groups, the survey added.

The survey report suggested that various formats of digital payment were being used for online as well as offline transactions, and made note of rise of methods such as BNPL, or Buy Now, Pay Later. A big reason for the growth of the digital payment culture in India was acceptance of the transaction methods among street vendors and reach across smalltown India.