Watch: Metros drive growth in digital payments

Nine out of every 10 individuals hold an e-wallet account, and almost 90% of the people make their monetary transactions through the ‘cashless’ mode, a study revealed.

In the wake of two years of demonetisation, a market research analysis company Velocity MR conducted a pan-India study to understand the growth of the e-wallet in the past two years. The study was conducted among a sample size of 2,455 respondents and covered cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad Chennai, and Pune.

It was revealed in the study that 97% of respondents are aware of Paytm. A lower but similar level of awareness - 6 out of every 10 respondents- witnessed for Airtel money, Freecharge, and Mobikwik.

Also, 9 out of every 10 e-wallet transactions are used to do mobile recharges, followed by paying the utility bills (8 out of 10), and every 6 out of 10 individuals have a very good experience in using e-wallets. In the past 3 months, approximately 85% of the people have made around 50% of their monetary transactions in the ‘cashless’ mode.

According to Market Research Future, the global E-wallet market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15% and estimated to reach market size of approximately $2,100 billion by the end of forecast period 2017-2023.

The Velocity MR study shows that there is a tremendous increase in the usership of e-wallets particularly since the last one year.

Jasal Shah, Managing Director and CEO of Velocity MR said, “With an estimated 230 million smartphone users in India, improved internet speed and declining handset prices, mobiles have become the primary devices shaping our daily lives by changing how customers search, purchase and pay for goods and services. Riding the smartphone growth wave and the favourable regulatory environment from RBI, online payments have gone up significantly pushing the economy into a less-cash and transparent state.”

However, e-wallets still haven’t completely replaced the alternative methods of carrying out monetary transactions. Many people still prefer using Debit/Credit cards, internet banking, etc. as their preferred mode of payment.

Shah said, “Mobile digital payments have increased rapidly post demonetisation, and mobile wallets have contributed immensely by taking mobile payments right into the hands of end customers. Significant investments in the form of cashback and innovations, like one-click payments, pay anytime anywhere have helped merchants and customers to adopt mobile wallets to save costs as compared to other digital payment methods.”

Payments landscape

One of the most significant changes in the payments landscape is the push towards interoperability, with instruments such as UPI allowing transfers between banks, independent of the acquirer payment service provider mobile app, said Ramaswamy Venkatachalam, Managing Director – India and South Asia, FIS. FIS is the largest provider of banking and payments technology.

"The increasing adoption of the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) or Bharat QR has lend a further push to seamless, secure and interoperable payments," he added.