Demonetisation has significantly changed how Indians make payments. A few striking highlights from last two months of 2016¹:
- Transactions via UPI increased from nothing to Rs. 700 crore in December!
- Rs.2.6 lakh crore worth of transactions were carried out via mobile apps of major banks
- However, major pre-paid wallets(Paytm, Mobikwik etc.) facilitated more number transactions compared to major mobile banking apps
There are two types of digital payment methods: First is credit/debit cards (plastic money) based and second is mobile based payments (UPI, IMPS etc.). Mobile payments are convenient, cheaper and do not require additional hardware as compared to card payments.
There is a possibility that India will leapfrog to mobile based payments skipping plastic money
Instant mobile payments can be done either via Mobile Wallets apps provided by private companies or via different functionality provided by banking apps (UPI, IMPS, QR code, etc.)
At this point, cashless payments are blue ocean for both wallets and traditional banks. However, by transaction volume and acceptance perspective, currently only the mobile wallets are making the most of this opportunity².
How can banking apps improve?
At Turing Analytics, we set our aim to identify why mobile banking apps and UPI apps are not doing as good as the mobile wallets. We needed to hear voice of consumers and naturally, we chose Google Play Store reviews to listen to what consumers say about these apps.
We analysed a total of 6700 reviews of 20 top Indian Banking and UPI apps sampled during November-December 2016. The aim was to figure out what users feel about mobile banking and UPI apps and more importantly, what banks need to do to compete against the onslaught of mobile wallets.
Here is a gist of what users say:
- First time registration, on boarding, login, OTP and network issues are among the most common problems
- A Good number of customers have enquired about VPA, UPI integration with banking app
- More people want integration with bill payment and recharge options inside the same application
- Customers want their Credit/Debit cards linked with their payment options
Our detailed report quantitatively establishes how much each aspect of mobile apps such as login process, stability, user-friendliness etc. contribute to overall customer satisfaction. You can refer to the summary of analysis for more details.
We believe that consumer reviews are best reflection of state of any mobile app user. If banks can listen to them and respond by making apps better, that would be a win-win situation for banks as well as consumers. It will also accelerate the pace of adoption of digital payments.
The full report contains scores on all 8 critical components and specific issues and/or plus points of each app. Contact us at mail@turingiq.com to get detailed analysis.
Bottomline
Indian customers trust their banks way more than new mobile wallets. While they are quickly moving towards mobile based payments, the analysis clearly shows that apps provided by banks are not fulfilling their expectations.
If banks quickly improve their solutions based on feedback from customers, India can skip the plastic money and leapfrog to mobile payments.
Let’s work together to make India cashless.
This blog post was originally published on Turing Analytics Blog.
