 "UPI")
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions grew 118 per cent in volume and 106 per cent in value at semi-urban and rural stores in the country, underlining strong adoption in geographies beyond tier two regions, a report by fintech company PayNearby showed.
This development follows strong growth in UPI volumes and transaction values over the past year. In November this year, UPI transactions clocked a volume of 11.24 billion transactions and a value of Rs 17.4 trillion, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
PayNearby’s third edition of the pan-India report titled ‘Retail-O-Nomics’ showed that insurance policy purchases and premium collections rose 150 per cent in transaction volume and 140 per cent in new customer adoption on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis.
Meanwhile, Mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) acceptance recorded a 5 per cent increase in value, representing an increase in the adoption of technology among small merchants.
“The surge in GTV (gross transaction value) results from not only the growth in traditional banking and ATM services but also the adoption of products like UPI and mPOS, NTC credit solutions, insurance, e-commerce, and more. Despite this, there's still a huge untapped market needing the right product, pricing, and distribution for easier adoption,” said Anand Kumar Bajaj, founder, Managing Director (MD), and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), PayNearby.
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It added that the demand for micro ATM (MATM) devices marked a 17 per cent surge in purchases compared to the previous year. The average cash withdrawal per transaction inched up from Rs 2,595 in 2022 to Rs 2,624 in 2023.
Similarly, the average ticket size for the e-commerce portfolio, which includes grocery, grooming, toys, and healthcare products, was pegged at Rs 1,586. The branded shop category, which has products such as consumer electronics, mobile accessories, kitchen appliances, among others, saw the average transaction value at Rs 3,184.
Bill payments and mobile recharges surged 74 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively. Aadhaar Enabled Payments System (AePS) withdrawals increased 30 to 40 per cent during direct benefit transfer (DBT) releases.
21 per cent of applicants who applied for credit products such as business or personal loans were new to credit (NTC).
PayNearby published the report based on transactions recorded across over one million PayNearby retail touchpoints, which includes kirana stores, mobile recharge stores, medical shops, customer service points (CSPs), travel agents, among others.
