Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, many are turning to digital payments to buy essentials

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Amid the coronavirus pandemic, consumers are increasingly using digital payments to buy essentials like food, groceries, medical supplies, telecom recharges and utility bills, during the 21-day nationwide lockdown in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Digital payments companies have seen a transactional surge at a time when sectors like aviation, hospitality, fuel, and e-commerce have been causing overall volumes to plunge. A total of around 50 percent of all debit and credit card transactions, during the last two weeks, were of the shutdown were for food and grocery related purchases. This went up from 12 percent prior to the announcement. 

Industry leaders have said that the surge in payment volumes is pretty much in line with the demand experienced by aggregators and also a push from their side to avoid accepting cash. Mention may be made of firms like Amazon, BigBasket, Swiggy, 1MG, Zomato, Grofers and FristCry that have stopped accepting cash on delivery. Dunzo even is asking for pre-payments delivery. 

Also, Grofers has seen a surge in transactions. BigBasket’s orders have also spiked to 325,000 daily, which as thrice as normal. Even pharma delivery startups like that of 1MG have stopped accepting cash as mentioned in their app. Contactless cards and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) are being promoted by banks, sector regulators, and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

At the same time, companies that are processing payments for leading merchants have said that bills paid digitally have recorded a sharp increase. There are payment gateways like CC Avenues, Billdesk and PayU that have witnessed monthly mobile recharge volumes that have surged upwards under a bracket of 20-25 percent in the lockdown period.

Also, talking about online payments, especially through NPCI’s Bharat Bill Payments Systems (BBPS), has also surged around 22 percent. Also, new payment trends have emerged on offline spending platforms that are recorded on swipe machines and offline UPI modes through QR stickers. 

Various industry leaders have stated that the average digital ticket sizes in the first week of the lockdown were as high as 20 percent. This is due to the fact that a consumers’ tendency to hoard supplies, but, since the supply chain pressures eased, there has been a slight moderation in the per ticket spends.

It’s also noted that commercial activities have been at a near standstill and there has been an aggressive push by banks and regulators to promote ‘non-contract digital’ payments. Another industry expert has stated that food and grocery purchases could make for over 75 percent of the card-volumes by the second week of April. 

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