Online donations to charitable causes reach an all-time high in lockdown 2.0, revels PayU Insights Report, a comparative analysis of lockdown periods in 2020 and 2021.
Digital payments for charitable causes witnessed a massive 731% increase in the number of transactions, a 2308% increase in expenditure, and a 128% increase in average ticket size vis a vis pre-lockdown months in 2021.
PayU, online payments solution provider, released the PayU Insights Report today, providing a comparative analysis of lockdown periods in 2020 and 2021, as seen through changes in digital payments transactions across the platform.
The report offers insights into the impact across sectors as well as an overview of the Indian digital payments space. Year on year, there has been a 52% increase in the number of transactions and a 76% increase in expenditure (May 2020 vs. May 2021). Compared to pre lockdown months, there was a 10% increase in the number of transactions post lockdown 2021, and a 21% decrease in average ticket size indicating that users are adopting online payments even for smaller size transactions.
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Key Insights
Online donations to charitable causes reach an all-time high in lockdown 2.0
Digital payments for charitable causes witnessed a massive 731% increase in the number of transactions, a 2308% increase in expenditure, and a 128% increase in average ticket size vis a vis pre-lockdown months in 2021.
Logistics gains momentum, with partial and staggered lockdowns
In lockdown 2.0, the logistics sector recorded a 217% increase in the number of transactions and a 227% increase in expenditure, compared to lockdown 1.0.
Entertainment, gaming sees a downturn
The entertainment sector suffered from the impact of the second wave of the pandemic, as there was a 35% decline in the number of transactions, a 41% decrease in expenditure, and an 11% decline in average ticket size in lockdown 2.0 vis a vis pre-lockdown 2.0.
Gaming sector too showed a complete reversal of trends, with healthy growth in 2020 but decline in 2021.
Transaction through UPI grew
Lockdown 2.0 recorded phenomenal growth for UPI as a payment mode. The number of transactions through UPI increased by 320% and expenditure increased by 306% in lockdown 2.0, compared to lockdown 1.0.
Impact on travel
The number of transactions grew by 186%, and expenditure by 125% between lockdown 1.0 and 2.0. This is understandable, as travel rose once the economy opened and restrictions eased during a staggered lockdown. However, immediately after the lockdown in 2021, there was a 65% drop in transactions and a 78% drop in expenditure.
Commenting on the PayU Insights Report, Hemang Dattani, Head – Data Intelligence, PayU said “Broadly, businesses and consumers were better prepared to deal with the exigencies of lockdown in 2021. Given that the lockdown was staggered and geographically restricted, the growth of digital payments has been steady, especially for sectors like retail, logistics & pharma. As a leader in the online payments space, PayU is well placed to capture macro-economic movements and offers industry specific insight-based solutions, enabling merchants to glean actionable intelligence and enhance their business strategies.”
