There are more Indians using e-wallets for payments than Japan and Malaysia!

If you feel that Indians are making less use of e-wallets for payments, read this! Indians are the second highest e-wallet users in Asia Pacific as about 40% of respondents use e-wallets in India, second only after China (70%), according to a study.

ACI Worldwide has come out with a study about the current state of digital payment adoption and how new Internet-based services affect payment trends in various countries.

Over 60% of respondents in India use both desktop and mobile devices to make e-Commerce purchases, it said.

“The importance of faster speed and higher efficiency (48% in India and 47% in Asia Pacific), and better rates (28% in India and 15% in Asia Pacific), while choosing new methods of payments, was stronger in India compared to other countries in Asia Pacific,” it said.

Mobile recharges (60%), shopping online (58%), utility payments (58%), and paying for taxi services (52%) were the dominant smartphone wallet purchases in India.

This happened due to increased uptake of NPCI’s Immediate Payment Services (IMPS) and innovation from e-Commerce companies.

The study also indicated that newer methods of payments with mobile platforms, such as smartphone wallets and online payment tools, are being driven by increasingly sophisticated Gen Y consumers aged 25-34 years old.

The study focused on Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand and it was found that 82% of respondents had used new digital payments.

The reason behind consumers using online payment services is to enjoy faster and more efficient payments (47%), followed by trust in online payments (21%) and better rates compared to other methods of payment (15%).

The shared economy, which is built around the sharing of resources, is a major market driver in Asia Pacific. The top three ‘shared economy’ services across the region are taxi services, aggregated meal delivery and accommodations.

Non-bank-led financial services, such as Alipay and WeChat wallet, are disrupting emerging markets and challenging banks by becoming viable alternative payment methods, resulting in higher usage of online payment services (72.4%), smartphone wallets (32.8%) and mobile money (13.3%).

Digital methods of payments are set to grow in tandem with shared economy services in Asia Pacific, especially for transactions where convenience, speed and seamlessness are valued.

“The region is rapidly moving toward real-time…driven by customers’ demand for faster and more efficient payments. Non-financial services have added to the dynamic competition, extending payments from online and mobile ecosystems into peer-to-peer payments within social apps such as WeChat and Line,” said Rachel Hunt, marketing director, Asia Pacific & Japan, ACI Worldwide.

Banks need to embrace these disruptions in order to innovate long-term winning strategies. “We are entering a new era in payments, with developments focused on financial technology and customer experience that will shape our purchasing behavior on the mobile platform,” said Shekhar Ganapathy, general manager, South Asia, ACI Worldwide.

ACI Worldwide, a payment company, powers electronic payments and banking for over 5,600 financial institutions, retailers, billers and processors around the world.

(Image: Indiatimes)