{"id":211395,"date":"2025-10-19T17:14:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T17:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/211395\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T17:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T17:14:14","slug":"loyalty-takes-centre-stage-in-indias-digital-payments-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/211395\/","title":{"rendered":"Loyalty takes centre stage in India\u2019s digital payments: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Loyalty is becoming a key driver in India\u2019s digital payments, according to the ‘H1 2025 Payment Pulse Report’ by the fintech Phi Commerce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For instance, the report found that one in five food & beverage (F&B) transactions are now driven by loyalty. This shows how rewards and incentives are changing the way people pay across the country.<\/p>\n

The study analysed data from over 20,000 merchants spanning five sectors: education, F&B, government & utilities, healthcare<\/a>, and ecommerce.<\/p>\n

Loyalty on the rise <\/p>\n

In F&B, loyalty-related transactions rose 17.1% in the first half of 2025, up from 15.4% the previous year. This was driven by restaurant chains and quick-service firms integrating digital rewards directly into their payment processes. \u201cFrom cashbacks to points, loyalty has moved from being a marketing add-on to becoming an active purchase trigger,\u2019\u2019 the report noted.<\/p>\n

In ecommerce, payments linked to rewards grew 6.2 percent year-on-year (YoY), as online marketplaces enabled one-click redemption of rewards to encourage more sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumers today don\u2019t just look for convenience; they seek value. Loyalty has become part of the value equation at checkout,\u201d the report added.<\/p>\n

Peak payment<\/p>\n

The report highlights distinct peak payment times across sectors.<\/p>\n

Healthcare payments peak between 8 and 11 am as patients schedule appointments or order medicines. Education, government, and ecommerce sectors see the busiest period from 11 am to 2 pm, coinciding with fee deadlines, shopping breaks, and bill payments. F&B dominates the 5 to 8 pm window, powered by dining out, takeout, and weekend orders.<\/p>\n

The report emphasised that aligning promotions with peak payment times can bring better results. \u201cTiming has become the new competitive edge,\u201d the report observed.<\/p>\n

Rising EMIs <\/p>\n

The report also notes a sharp increase in the use of EMIs beyond luxury items, for essentials like healthcare and education.<\/p>\n

In healthcare, EMI usage<\/a> rose to 17.2% of digital transactions, up 2.1 percent from last year, showing that more families are relying on flexible payment plans for significant medical expenses. In education, EMIs now represent 7.4% of transactions, reflecting growing financial pressure as schools adopt instalment plans for fees.<\/p>\n

But UPI rules<\/p>\n

Despite the rise in loyalty and credit payments, UPI continues to dominate India\u2019s digital economy. The report finds that it accounts for 70\u201390% of transactions in key sectors.<\/p>\n

The largest growth was in government & utilities, where UPI\u2019s share increased from 74.9% in the first half of 2024 to 89.7% in the same period this year, thanks to auto-debit mandates and fee-waiver incentives. Education followed closely, with UPI rising to 77.7% as schools adopted QR code payments and auto pay to make fee collection easier.<\/p>\n

The increase in UPI use, however, has come at the expense of other payment methods: the use of net banking in education dropped from 19.3% to 10.5%, while card usage in government & utilities fell sharply, from 20.6% to 3.9%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loyalty is becoming a key driver in India\u2019s digital payments, according to the ‘H1 2025 Payment Pulse Report’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[91007,91005,2960,9902,91003,91004,38717,2306,91008,86,56,54,55,91006],"class_list":{"0":"post-211395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-emi-usage","9":"tag-fb-transactions","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-india-digital-payments","12":"tag-loyalty-in-payments","13":"tag-loyalty-points-payment","14":"tag-loyalty-rewards","15":"tag-mobile","16":"tag-phi-commerce","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-unitedkingdom","21":"tag-upi-dominance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}