Marking the second anniversary of Demonetization on November 8th, Velocity MR, a leading market research analysis company announced the results of their pan India study to understand the growth of the E-wallet in the past two years. The national study was conducted among a sample size of 2,455 respondents and covered prominent Indian cities including Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad Chennai, and Pune.
As the Indian economy is racing towards the ‘digital’ era, a majority of the population have begun using E-wallets/Mobile wallets for their day to day monetary transactions. The study shows that there is a tremendous increase in the usership of E-wallets particularly since the past 12 months.
Adds Jasal Shah, Managing Director & CEO of Velocity MR, “With an estimated 230 million smartphone users in India, improved internet speed and declining handset prices, mobiles have become the primary device shaping our daily lives by changing how customers search, purchase and pay for goods and services. Riding the smartphone growth wave and the favorable regulatory environment from RBI, online payments have gone up significantly pushing the economy into a less-cash and transparent state.”
He further adds, “Mobile digital payments have increased rapidly post demonetization, 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. With the push from government and innovations, mobile wallets are expected to grow further in near to mid-term.”
Highlights of the Study
- 9 out of every 10 individuals hold an E-wallet account.
- Almost all of the respondents (97%) are aware of Paytm. A lower but similar level of awareness 6 in every 10 respondents is witnessed for Airtel money, Freecharge, and Mobikwik.
- 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.
- The usage of Credit Cards, 3 out of every 4 (75%) is observed to be the highest among the people who have monthly personal income between INR 1.5 to 2 lacs whereas people having a monthly personal income around INR 75,000 mostly prefer to use Debit Cards, 9 in every 10 (91%) over other modes of payments.
- Almost 90% of the people make their monetary transactions through the ‘cashless’ mode.
- Approximately 9 out of every 10 E-wallet transactions are used to do mobile recharges, followed by paying the utility bills (8 out of 10).
- 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.
- E-wallets are mostly used for mobile recharges (9 out of 10), followed by paying the utility bills (8 out of 10).
- The source of awareness of E-wallets through social media is seen more in the youth (69%) as compared to that of the adults.
- It is encouraging to note that no respondents are unhappy using e-wallets, thus showcasing the promising future growth.
