A Year After Demonetisation: Impact Analysis

It has been a year since the Government of India implemented the most extreme measure to curb corruption and black money. On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that all Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes would be invalid after midnight. This phenomenon that is popularly known as Demonetisation has had many impacts.

A year after Demonetisation, CashKaro.com has done a survey to analyze the ‘Impact of Demonetisation a year after. The survey saw participation from over 2000 people across India and respondents were divided on their opinion over Demonetisation. While 49% said Demonetisation was a success, 38% thought it was a failure. However, 90% of the respondents said they prefer paying online post Demonetisation.

Among those who now prefer paying online, 54% pay via debit/credit cards, 30% pay via wallets like Paytm, Freecharge, MobiKwik etc., and 6% use NetBanking and UPI. Interestingly, 80% of the respondents claimed that they have introduced either their family or friends to cashless payments post-Demonetisation. Most respondents introduced shoppers to wallet based payment. The ease of use and instant money transfers facilitated by mobile wallets has made them a popular mode of payment.

Speaking on the impact of Demonetisation, Rohan Bhargava, Co-founder CashKaro.com said that, “The overall impact of Demonetisation has been positive as people have renewed faith in cashless payments. CashKaro too saw a small dip in traffic right after Demonetisation but, things normalized soon after and we actually saw a growth in transactions.”

KEY INSIGHTS:

• 45% agreed that their shopping habits have been affected due to Demonetisation.
• Online Payments have seen a huge growth. This can be attributed to how quickly people adopted cashless payment modes. Here’s a look at the breakup of the different online payment modes that respondents introduced their family and friends to:

o    Mobile Wallets (Paytm, MobiKwik etc.) – 29%

o    Credit/Debit Cards – 19%

o    NetBanking – 6%

o    All the above – 25%

• Prepaid Orders are now more popular than Cash on Delivery orders.

o    47% of the respondents have switched from CoD to Prepaid Orders post Demonetisation

• Debit/Credit Cards at the most favoured mode of payment when shopping online followed by mobile wallets.

o    Debit/Credit Cards - 54%

o    Wallets (Paytm, MobiKwik etc.) - 30%

o    Cash on Delivery (CoD) - 10%

o    NetBanking - 6%

Overall the impact of Demonetisation on online shopping has been positive as more and more people have chosen cashless payments modes. This has helped many brands in establishing customer faith.

The survey sample of 2,000 respondents comprised majorly of people between the age group of 25-35 years, residing in Tier 1 cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, and Tier 2 & 3 cities like Jaipur, Indore, Aligarh, Alwar, Raipur, Patna, Vishakhapatnam, Nagpur, Chandigarh and Pune.