Revenge tourism, World Cup fever drive transactions in FY23: Razorpay

From a rise in revenge tourism to World Cup fever among cricket and football fans, the financial year 2023 saw Indians make some interesting transactions amid easing Covid-19 restrictions, according to a recent report by Razorpay

When Virat Kohli walked onto the Adelaide cricket ground on 23rd October 2022 between 3:30 and 5:15 PM IST for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, online payments fell by almost 40 per cent in value when compared with the hours before the match, according to the Razorpay Payments Report FY 2022-23.

Likewise, the FIFA World Cup final between Argentina and France on 18th December 2022 between 8:30 PM and midnight saw a similar reaction. The number of hourly food transactions swelled to 1.7 times the average, making it the 4th busiest Sunday in FY2023.

Consumers also rushed to theaters in FY23. Multiplex spend saw a whopping 173 per cent growth. The launch of the movie Pathaan on big screens across the country single-handedly drew Indians to the big screen, with a massive 70 per cent jump in multiplex transactions, over the daily average.

"FY23 has been a year of hope, resilience, and rejuvenation for India, with a sharp growth in transactions across sectors as people rekindled old-forgotten joys of life. It also showed how Indians have embraced the digital age and how they are using new payment technologies to connect, collaborate, and transact,” said Rahul Kothari, Chief Business Officer, Razorpay. “As we eagerly anticipate the future, we look forward to continuing our mission with enthusiasm and optimism.”

Due to easing Covid-19 restrictions, India Inc. was observed spending more time at work, with co-working spaces seeing a massive 245 per cent increase in transactions compared to FY22, while the number of payments made for cab services grew seven-fold. However, the biggest shift came in the form of broadband spend, which dropped by almost 80 per cent.

According to the report, revenge tourism also saw a steep rise. Spend on flight tickets grew by 83 per cent and expenses on hotel accommodations nearly doubled in value compared to the previous financial year. Online travel aggregators saw a massive 224 per cent increase in transaction value.

The country flocked back to stores and shopped to their heart’s content. According to transactions held on Razorpay’s offline payments platform Ezetap, in-store payments grew 88 per cent by value and transactions more than doubled in number across most metros.

Consumer spend in the apparel segment grew 127 per cent, while jewellery rose 88 per cent. Electronics saw a 60 per cent uptick and grocery spend grew substantially at 46 per cent. The top five cities that saw steep growth in in-store payment volumes include Gurugram at 160.93 per cent, Pune with 153.77 per cent, Bengaluru at 145.26 per cent, Chennai at 107.86 per cent, and Kolkata at 106.02 per cent.

Furthermore, customer spend on dining out increased by 2.5-fold and transaction volumes jumped by 162 per cent in comparison to last financial year, according to Ezetap data.

Insights for the report were obtained after analyzing over one billion transactions processed on Razorpay’s platform between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023.