76% Indians prefer UPI as a payment mode

New research from FIS shows Indians’ willingness to adopt embedded finance, such as embedded payments, and explore various offerings in the Metaverse. 76% Indians prefer using UPI, the homegrown instant real-time payment system, during online checkouts; Millennials (84%) accounts for the highest among the surveyed age groups to use UPI when shopping online.

Embedded finance is when consumers have unique, tailored financial services delivered to them at the point of need by non-financial companies. The common embedded finance experiences include embedded payments, embedded lending, embedded insurance and investing, as well as the use cases of offerings in the Metaverse. The survey offers responses collected by consumers in India, belonging to different age groups, cities, gender and salary scales.

As the physical, digital and virtual worlds are converging, Indians are willing to explore and purchase within apps/browsers as well from the social media platforms, 72% Indians consider discounts and offers as the major driver of their buying behaviour on social media apps and 68% Indians said they are interested to try shopping in the Metaverse. In terms of socializing, Men (60%) are keener to try out dating and virtual events in the Metaverse as compared to women (48%).

Customers of today expect seamless purchasing experiences and embedded services carry the promise to deliver them within new and emerging consumer touchpoints. Apart from a hassle-free customer experience, Indians seek instant gratification and incentives during online purchases.

India has been witnessing a surge in the digital marketplace, which is driven by quick delivery and return policies of marketers, special offers, targeted advertisements, better internet availability and use of smartphones.

Adoption of embedded finance in India is on the rise and is expected to maintain the upward trajectory in the next 12 months. Embedded finance has a great potential to transform customer payment experience offered by banks and financial institutions and drive new avenues of growth for partnering merchants.