Citizens come together to support battle against COVID-19

Utilities (Bill Payments), IT & Software, and Media & Entertainment increased by 73%, 32%, and 25%, respectively, due to the social distancing.

Tier 2 and 3 cities, the digital payments began to increase dramatically, the share of wallets such as JioMoney and Paytm.

Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra, along with their capital cities, saw a sharp drop during the lockdown.

Razorpay, the leading full-stack financial technology provider, today released the fifth edition of the ‘Age of Rising Fintech’ survey.

Historically, the report presented an in-depth analysis of the FinTech ecosystem by evaluating the trends of digital transactions and the effects of such business technologies on a quarterly basis. However, this time, given the circumstances facing the world in the fight against the outbreak of COVID-19, the report shares insights into the impact of the National Lockdown (30 days) on digital payments in India.

So, let’s take a look at what’s happened in the past 30 days. All results in this study are focused on transactions on the Razorpay Platform between 24 February and 23 March (Before Lockdown) vs. 24 March and 23 April (During Lockdown):

As citizens remained indoors, sectors such as Utilities (Bill Payments), IT & Software and Media & Entertainment saw a rise of 73 percent, 32 percent, and 25 percent respectively

Lockdown led to a decline in a few sectors-Logistics transactions decreased by 96 percent due to supply chain gaps. The travel sector decreased by 87%, Real Estate by 83%, Food and Beverage (F&B) by 68%, and Grocery by 54%.

During Lockdown, online donations (transactions) to NGOs increased by 180 percent, demonstrating overwhelming support from people to assist affected.

Transactions in cities such as Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Chennai, respectively, by 43 %, 32 % , and 25 % , over the last 30 days.

Karnataka (21%), Maharashtra (16 %) and Telangana (11 %) saw the highest contribution during the lockdown, while Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu declined by 41%, 39%, and 26% respectively.

In payment methods (during lockdown), UPI made the largest contribution of 43%, followed by Cards (Debit & Credit) with 39% and Netbanking with 10%. However, compared to the 30 days prior to the lockdown, transactions through UPI, Cards and Netbanking decreased by 37%, 30% and 28% respectively.

N UPI Devices, Google Pay contributed the highest with a 46 % share, followed by 29 % with PhonePe and 10 % with Paytm. Paytm saw a 47 percent drop during the shutdown, Google Pay a 43 % drop, and PhonePe a 32 % drop.

Mobile wallet transactions, especially in Tier-2 cities, have seen a spike in the last 30 days due to increased contributions to the PM Cares Fund and cashback offers – transactions via JioMoney have increased by 66%, Amazon Pay by 63% and Paytm by 43%.

Total digital payment transactions in the country have decreased by 30% over 30 days.

Harshil Mathur, CEO and Co-founder, Razorpay said, “A huge 30 percent decline in online payments over the last 30 days is something we’ve seen for the first time since demonetization. In the first two weeks of March, before the lockout, total online spending rose by about 10%, but later saw a decline mainly due to the precautionary steps that people started to take by remaining indoors. Although COVID-19 continues to generate uncertainty on a variety of fronts, this pandemic is also a turning point for the fintech industry in many ways, one of which is the enormous adoption of digital payments, especially in Tier 2 and 3 cities, over the last 30 days of lockdown.”

The growth of Razorpay has been uphill, particularly in the last two years. With 500% growth in 2019, the company witnessed a healthy growth rate of 35% month on month. Currently providing payments to over 1,000,000 companies, including Indigo, BSE, Thomas Cook, Reliance, SpiceJet, Aditya Birla, Sony, and OYO, the team aims to increase this number to 1,400,000 by this year.

On the other hand, while the world hopes for a rapid recovery from the current situation, Razorpay urges every company and every individual to comply with all precautions and measures to ensure the well-being of all.