Young merchants likely adopters of electronic payments: Study

As India aims to move towards less-cash society, a MasterCard study of micro merchants in India indicates that young businessmen in the age group of 35-45 are most likely to adopt electronic payment systems.
The report identifies the number of merchants most inclined to trials of e-payments at 10 per cent, or almost 5 million of the total 59.16 million known universe of micro merchants.
Merchants cited potential increase in revenue (46 per cent) as a strong driver for trials, followed by increased business efficiency (31 per cent) and enhanced shop image (30 per cent).
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) in association with MasterCard is conducting a national campaign with MasterCard for incentivisation of usage of Debit-Credit Card & other digital mode of payments since last one year.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandewal said India is on the cusp of a payments revolution as this has been pursued as a key policy objective by the NDA government.
"Through our partnership with MasterCard, we have successfully been able to reach out to more than 50,000 traders and smaller businesses across eight states and intend to cover many more this year," he said.
Porush Singh, Country Corporate Officer, India and Division President, South Asia, MasterCard said effort is to ensure maximum outreach to merchants helping them make the link between the benefits of a non-cash payment system and how it can help mitigate many of their business challenges.

The study identifies young merchants (age 35-45 years), owning medium sized businesses (6 to 10 employees) and large sized businesses (11 to 20 employees), based across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bareilly as high potential segments for adopting new technology and moving to a non-cash payment system.