Ahead of the festive shopping season, affordability is expected to become a more significant factor for consumers making high-value purchases. Gaurav Arora, Vice President of Payments and SuperCoins at Flipkart, stated that the company anticipates that approximately one-third of the Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of mobile phones and major electronics (MLE) will be conducted through Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) options.
Arora noted that, overall, about half of expensive electronics purchases, according to him, will be facilitated by affordability mechanisms. On the Flipkart platform, customers can utilize EMI via credit and debit cards, as well as cardless EMI, which are supported by various banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). Additionally, affordability options such as Flipkart EMI and SuperPay are available.
According to Arora, among all available options, the highest demand is observed for cardless EMI in Tier 2 cities and above. He explained that these offers are particularly sought after by customers from Tier 2 cities and above because they do not have access to credit cards, leading them to prefer cardless EMI options, which he believes expands access to credit for a wider range of consumers.
The choice of payment method also depends on the purchase price. Arora emphasized that low-value transactions continue to show a strong preference for UPI, but the payment mix is beginning to change as the transaction amount increases. He added that around the ₹5000 mark, buyers are increasingly shifting to credit cards, and affordability options like credit card EMI become more important for purchases ranging from ₹20,000 to ₹30,000 and above.
Festive shopping is also leading to a sharp increase in transaction volumes. According to Arora's data, during peak periods, Flipkart records an almost 1000-fold increase in payment requests compared to a normal day. This surge, driven by large consumer purchases, heightens the importance of payment reliability, as banks, payment gateways, and telecom operators face a sudden increase in traffic. In response, Flipkart is actively implementing biometric authentication to address these issues.
Currently, about 30 percent of transactions with the co-branded Flipkart Axis Bank card undergo biometric authentication, and in banks where biometric payment is enabled, about 23 percent of transactions use this technology. Arora stated that transactions that pass biometric authentication have a 12–15 percent higher success rate compared to OTP-based transactions.
The growth of gifts also influences the festive payment mix. The Flipkart gift category has increased by over 60% year-on-year, driven by corporate gifting, while demand for individual gift cards primarily comes from markets outside metropolitan areas, in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.