- Razorpay shared insights about the impact of coronavirus on digital payments. The travel industry saw a 30% dip in online bookings.
On Thursday Razorpay shared insights into the effect of the outbreak of Coronavirus (Covid-19) on digital payments in India. The insights are focused on transactions between February 2020 and now, kept on the company’s website.
The travel advisories in India have resulted in a dramatic decrease in online travel expenses. According to Statista, the travel industry contributed with a 40 percent share of India’s highest online payments in 2019. The new situation has caused a 30 percent drop in online travel bookings, according to Razorpay.
Around the same time, customer payment preferences are shifting as human experiences are declining. Net digital spending on the Razorpay platform from February to March, due to this virus outbreak, increased by around 10 percent. Online Grocery Shopping ascended the ladder with a rise of 9 percent for the first time ever, and government and energy bill payments increased by 30 percent, reflecting precautionary steps that consumers take by staying indoors.
Other insights are as follows:
- Around mid-February and now, consumers reported a 10 percent rise in digital spending.
- In this plague, UPI (19.6 percent), NetBanking (11.5 percent), and Wallets (10.3 percent) were the top 3 payment modes.
- The fear of this outbreak decreased the travel sector’s contribution by 30 percent and the hospitality sector by 12 percent (Typically, Travel and Hospitality accounts for around 10 percent of Razorpay’s transactions).
- Fear of running out of household necessities took grocery to the top three sectors with a growth rate of 9%.
- Mutual Funds have seen the highest growth of 33 percent in this period, led by a 30 percent rise in the government sector.
- In Ahmedabad (by 11 percent), Hyderabad (by 7 percent), and Pune (by 5 percent), the number of online transactions has increased.
- This period city that previously saw just an upward growth fell-Bangalore (by 3.2%) and Delhi (by 2.6%).
In a quote, Harshil Mathur, CEO, and co-founder, Razorpay said, “From a macroeconomic perspective, we are witnessing an increase in demand for digital payments across a few sectors— grocery, e-commerce and utility bills have risen, despite social isolation. On the flip, people have to stay indoors and not have enough purchasing power, this can cause the overall consumer spending to go down creating a lasting (negative) effect. “He added,” In times like this, we need not only businesses, scientists, clinicians, and technicians, but also the government to come together and create a rapid response team across the industry.
Since December 2019, when Covid-19 emerged in China’s Wuhan city and its magnitude started to spread across the globe, global financial markets have been on the verge of dramatic change–this outbreak could cost the global economy $1-2 trillion in 2020, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development.
Coronavirus has taken a toll on the industry of travel where people are canceling their online bookings, domestic giants such as IndiGo are cutting the salary of the employees due to shortage in business and in the other news the sky is blue. This slowdown is gonna continue as long as the corona will stay with us.
