Bengaluru: Since December 2019, when Covid-19 originated in China's Wuhan city and its severity started to spread across the world, the global financial markets have been on the verge of a massive change - according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development, this outbreak might cost the global economy USD 1-2 trillion in 2020.
Razorpay on the basis of transactions held on the company's platform between February 2020 and now. The travel advisories have led to a drastic drop in online travel spending in India.
In 2019, according to Statista, the Travel sector contributed the highest to online payments in India with a 40% share. According to Razorpay, the current situation has brought a decline of 30% in online travel bookings, signifying a downturn in the sector's contribution to overall digital payments.
At the same time, as human interactions are reducing, consumer payment habits are changing - overall digital spending saw an increase of about 10% on the Razorpay platform from February to March, owing to this virus outbreak.
Online Grocery Shopping climbed the ladder with a growth of 9%, and Government and Utility Bill Payments grew by 30%, representing precautionary measures that the customers are taking by staying indoors.
Let's take a look at how the pandemic has impacted other aspects of digital payments. Again, these insights are based on transactions held on the Razorpay platform (February 2020 - now):
Customers showed a 10% increase in digital spending between mid February and now UPI (19.6%), NetBanking (11.5%), and Wallets (10.3%) became the top 3 modes of payments during this plague
As mentioned earlier, the fear of this outbreak brought down the contribution of the Travel sector by 30% and Hospitality sector by 12% (Typically, Travel and Hospitality account for approximately 10% of transactions on Razorpay)
Fear of running out of home essentials made Grocery make its way into the top 3 sectors with a growth of 9%. Mutual Funds saw the highest growth of 33% in this period, and the Government sector followed by a 30% growth
Number of online transactions has increased in Ahmedabad (by 11%), Hyderabad (by 7%) and Pune (by 5%)
Cities which otherwise saw only an upward growth dropped this time - Bengaluru (by 3.2%) and Delhi (by 2.6%)
