Indian consumers aim to spend more than APAC post Covid-19: Mastercard survey

Indians are more optimistic than their APAC counterpoints towards revival of the economy and their lives post Covid-19, a survey by Mastercard, a global technology company in payments industry, showed.

As many as 47 per cent of Indian respondents are optimistic about their financial situation reaching normalcy within six months as compared to the 29 per cent of respondents from rest of APAC, Manasi Narasimhan, Vice President, Marketing and Communication—South Asia, Mastercard told BusinessLine, sharing the key findings of the survey.

The markets covered were India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and South Korea. The methodology involved a 10 minute online monthly study among 300 respondents in each market from June 2020 to January 2021.

Traction seen in online education, health

The findings of the survey— ‘Preparing for the post Covid-19 world: India Consumer sentiment tracker’— highlighted the evolving Indian consumer sentiment along with a specific focus on industries such as retail, travel, and digital payments.

Narasimhan highlighted that Indian consumers are also now showing confidence to step out more than earlier due to the ongoing vaccination program. Reflecting Indian consumers positive sentiment towards normalcy, she said that 71 per cent Indian respondents are open to or want to travel domestically for leisure within 2021.

Asked about the changing digital habits of Indian consumers, she noted that there has been a sudden uptake on ordering digitally and paying in a contactless way. Also, 81 per cent of Indian respondents felt that ‘contactless payments’ as a trend is here to stay.

“Mastercard is delighted to see the optimism in overall consumer sentiment—a sentiment we have been making a conscious and diligent effort to understand during the pandemic period”, Manasi Narasimhan said.

As for the sectors, she said that online education space and health and wellness are seeing lot of traction in consumer spend and people are recruiting. Unlike many other Asian markets, the job market in India is not all that depressing with some sectors seeing hiring. While some sectors got hit, there are others that are improving.

Mastercard sees the step change in both e-commerce and contactless payments as “permanent” and not going to go back once normalcy returns. “As for categories, Health and wellness in every form including mental wellness have seen huge increase. Indians are spending a lot on wellness and education in every form (online education). Desire for domestic leisure travel in 2021 is also very visible now”, she said.

“The change from pessimism to optimism has been the overarching trend in India. There has been a big jump in use of digital payments”, she added.

Pre-Covid level

Manasi Narasimhan noted that India is now at the pre-Covid19 spend level domestically “A lot of domestic spends are back. Obviously international travel is not happening. At overall levels, spends are close to pre-Covid19 levels”, she said.

As for Mastercard, she said that it is largely at pre-Covid19 levels in terms of consumer spends with step changes of contactless pay and e-commerce..

“A lot of luxury spend will fully come back. But it is not fully there yet. We have seen in other markets that affluent will lead the luxury spending once vaccine is out . We do anticipate that this will happen in India too and overseas travel will come back for leisure and business”, she said.

COMMENT NOW