Almost every small business across every sector took a severe hit in 2020. But now a year later, embracing e-commerce and online payment methods have played a major role in keeping small businesses afloat. Digital payment transactions are up by 76% in Jan-Feb-March(JFM) of 2021, as compared to JFM, 2020. These and more insights were revealed by Razorpay, the leading full-stack financial solutions company, in its eighth edition of ‘The Era of Rising Fintech’ report today.

The 8th Edition of this report provided a detailed view of the evolving FinTech ecosystem, the digital spending patterns of consumers and an analysis of how digital payments performed in the last 12 months of the pandemic. The report also delves into a comparative analysis of how different sectors and payment modes performed in 2021, as compared to 2020, when businesses and life were hit by Covid.

Here are some key highlights from the report. All findings in this report are based on transactions held on Razorpay platform between 2020 and 2021. (JFM: Jan-Feb-Mar, OND: Oct- Nov-Dec)

-          Online transactions in JFM’21 saw a growth of 76% compared to JFM’20 indicating a large scale digital adoption by both businesses and consumers

-          In JFM’21, Tier-2 & 3 cities and towns continued to contribute over 50% of all online transactions

-          As tourism opened up, Jammu & Kashmir found itself in the top 10 Digitally Inclusive States/Union Territories for the first time, with a growth of 36% in online transactions in JFM’21 compared to JFM’20, ranking above Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana

-          Payment options such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) saw a whopping growth of 569% in the last twelve months, owing to consumers avoiding bulk payments and preferring affordable payment modes

-          UPI continues to be the preferred payment option followed by debit Cards, Credit Cards and Net Banking

-          While the beginning of 2020 recorded just about 500 transactions in eNACH payments, a new payment service that allows anyone with a bank account to easily automate recurring payments; eNACH saw a growth of 23,962% in JFM’21 compared to JFM’20, displaying a growing trend of businesses preferring digital & automated recurring payment processes

-          Travel industry has truly made a comeback with a 52% growth in JFM’21 compared to JFM’20, indicating some stability in the Travel & Hospitality economy, and also bringing respite to millions of people working in the sector

-          In the last few months, consumers have increasingly been ordering online and with that F&B industry witnessed growth of 69% from January to March’21

-          Schools, colleges and online educational institutes have increasingly been accepting online payments for fees & salary payments; reflecting a 40% growth in online transactions in JFM’21 vs JFM ‘20

-          Real-estate saw an increase of 65% in JFM’21 vs OND‘20, after a 14% decline in the last 6 months of 2020 compared to the first 6 months, showing green shoots of recovery for the sector this year

-          Mutual funds were the preferred choice of investment for salaried professionals, as the industry saw a 69% growth in JFM’21 vs OND’20, signifying increased interest to save taxes before the FY year ended and live financially healthier lives

Vedanarayan Vedantham, Head of SME business, Razorpay, said, "The last 12 months have been like being inside a time capsule. India's digital payments ecosystem in this timeframe has seen the kind of growth that might have happened over a 3-5 year horizon if not for the pandemic. A lot of first-time digital users and previously traditional, brick & mortar businesses have come forward to embrace digital payments. Over 50% of this digital adoption is coming from Tier 2 & 3 cities today, which indicates that this is not just an urban phenomenon. Small Businesses are providing newer payment methods and reaching out to a wider customer base that transcends geographical boundaries. All this is enabled by the convenience of digital payments, and we at Razorpay are humbled to support Small Businesses in their growth journey as Indian businesses and consumers together begin to build a Digitally Inclusive Nation.”

2020 brought in digitisation of Small Businesses at a much larger scale than Demonetisation. Having understood the many benefits of transacting online coupled with growing consumer preference, Small Businesses are expected to increase investment in digital technologies in 2021. Affordable payment options such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) have seen an increased preference which is expected to rise and increase transactions for SMBs.  

About Razorpay: Razorpay, a full-stack financial services company, and a recently crowned Unicorn, helps Indian businesses with comprehensive and innovative solutions built over robust technology to address the entire length and breadth of the payment and banking journey for any business. Established in 2014, the company provides technology payment solutions to over 5Mn businesses. Founded by alumni of IIT Roorkee, Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, Razorpay is the second Indian company to be a part of Silicon Valley’s largest tech accelerator, Y Combinator. Marquee investors such as GIC, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, Y Combinator and MasterCard have invested a total of $206.5 Mn through Series A, B, C & D funding. Around 33 angel investors have invested in Razorpay’s mission to simplify payments and banking and redefine how finance works in India.