Chennai: Festivals see a spurt in digital payments and largely customers make use of these occasions for making their grocery purchases. Some also prefer to go on a long drive.
Digital spend through credit and debit cards and other digital payment modes remained higher on festival days compared to usual days in the past few months. According to payment processing company Worldline India, Independence Day saw a 20 per cent increase in number of transactions and a 3 per cent increase in the value of transactions against usual business day. In June quarter too, highest number of transactions were witnessed around Eid-ul-Fitr and Ram Navami-Baisakhi.
“May was the month with the highest number of transactions in Q2 2019. June 2 ranked as the day with the highest number of transactions but this should come as no surprise given it was the weekend and Eid-ul-Fitr was just three days away. The days with second and third highest number of transactions were June 1 and April 13 which were near Eid-ul-Fitr and Ram Navami-Baisakhi respectively. The trend of highest number of transactions recorded during festivals continued like previous quarters,” said Deepak Chandnani, managing director, Worldline South Asia and Middle East.
All these days, grocery was the category which witnessed highest spend. Transactions at the grocery stores accounted for 24 per cent of the total volume on Independence Day. Despite being low-value item, grocery was one of the top categories in terms of value of transactions. At an average transaction size of Rs 1,100, grocery accounted for 16 per cent of the transaction value. Apparels too accounted for the same share, but as the average ticket size was Rs 2,210, the transaction volumes made up for just 12 per cent.
Similarly, during the festivals of Eid-ul-Fitr and Ram Navami–Baisakhi too grocery was the top category in terms of transactions. Further, in June quarter, the merchant categories with the highest volume and value of transactions were grocery, restaurants, petrol stations, apparel stores and speciality retail which accounted for about 65 per cent volume of transactions.
