Digital payment adoption has grown significantly in the last year, reflecting a secular trend among Indian consumers and businesses, TR Ramachandran VISA Inc's group country manager for India and South Asia said at during his address at the Digital Lenders Association of India’s 2021 Conclave on Wednesday. While fintech payment companies have gained ground in terms of new users and merchants coming on-board and a large number of customers have demonstrating shifting expenditure patterns, Ramachandran said that the payments industry as a whole needs to step up to improve the customer experience. The industry also needs to ensure there is trust in the system from a cyber-security and data protection point of of view, he said. Ramachandran highlighted five important trends for the digital payments industry going forward: 1) Customers shifting to digital-first commerce "Leading companies and brands are already powering cohesive omni-channel strategies that integrate mobile, online and instant commerce seamlessly. With in-store shopping severely limited across categories of business, buyers in turn are seeking robust digital-first commerce experience like never before," said Ramachandran. "We expect these formed habits to last", he said. "Digital has taken centre stage last year with many offline and neighbourhood stores coming down in their business and many starting digital operations. As the economy opened slowly mid-year, businesses have started implementing new methods of delivery like buying online. In parallel, we saw a noticeable spike of first time e-commerce shoppers emerging from Tier-2 and Tier 3 cities. We think that this number will go…
