Compiled By: Akshay Mehrotra, Co-Founder & CEO EarlySalary
About Akshay: He has more than 16 years of experience, with large conglomerates across multi-industry domains such as Retail, Consumer Services, Banking, E-commerce, and Insurance. He is responsible for devising EarlySalary’s product strategy, and in pursuing his mission of turning his Fintech venture into India’s next unicorn.
The towns were painted red last week. But so was the consumer economy, thriving on the emotion of love during Valentine’s week we just had. And the marketing around V-day made sure that firms and enterprises capitalized and participated thoroughly on the sentiments of urban millennials. This year, Indians didn’t shy away from showering their baes, partners and loved ones with gifts, treats, dates, and vacations. And I have the numbers to prove it!
The V-day tradition is more or less evolving into a custom, quite comfortably adopted nationwide now. The acceptance of this originally Western notion of the celebration of love is fast gaining grounds in India. Of course, the Americans left no stone unturned this time to become the highest spending nation averaging at $192 planned average spending, bringing the total expenditure to a whopping $27.4 billion. But Indians weren’t lagging behind.
It’s been a week since Valentine’s day, and it’s time to catch up on the trends and stats we witnessed this year. Thanks to my team, I have some interesting facts and figures on the evolving patterns of spending and borrowing habits of millennials and Gen Z.
A significant proportion of consumers today feel the need to substantiate their love by pampering their partners, regardless of how these indulgences are financed.
These statistics both reveal the nature of expenditure being favored by the young professionals and the trust bestowed by our customers on us on occasions like these.
When it comes to marking the averages, the figures followed a similar upsurge. The average borrowed amount was INR 23,500 – a 35% increase Year On Year during the same period.
The young salaried working professionals being our core focus, the average age of the borrowing individual at EarlySalary was 27 years. Currently, India is the youngest nation in the world, and our customer base quite corroborates with these demographics. If we further segregate the figures, we see that about half of the borrowers belonged to the IT and IT service industry.
Numbers suggest that it is the men who like to please their lady love more: with 86% of the borrowers being male and only 14% females. The trend falls in line with proportion to the male working population, hence not surprising at all. 53% of people who borrowed were single, further reiterating the fact that young unmarried couples rule the V-day economy.
Valentine’s day celebrations are more conspicuous in urban cities, which house a larger number of independent young professionals and affluent millennials. The year 2020 saw the highest amount of credit being served in tier-1 cities like Bengaluru at 24.8%, Mumbai at 12.5%, Delhi at 20.6%, among others. These figures clearly bring out the fact that the younger generation believes in collecting experiences and memories even if they require to go the credit route. And we, at EarlySalary, made it sure that that received the credit at the best possible terms and in a hassle-free way.
Dates and candle night dinners seem to be losing their charm when it comes to Valentine’s day. During an entire week of celebrating each other’s’ love, the millennials and Gen Z showered their partners with teddies, chocolates, flowers, and other goodies. Among the borrowers of EarlySalary, 29.6% sought the unconventional and spent their weekend on a vacation. A majority of the gifts were purchased via e-commerce websites. On this front, 1600 transactions were financed on borrowed money. Each transaction on an average amounted to INR 10,000.
These spending habits of young millennials and Generation Z exhibit the changing dynamics of credit in their lives in the coming future. Online lending portals are quickly becoming a popular source of credit by easing and transforming credit and lending facilities across the world. EarlySalary, with its instant loans and salary advances, customizable repayment schedules, and low rates of interest is a trusted name among the millennials and Gen Z in India.
I’m honored, and beyond happy we’re a part of our customers’ celebrations in every occasion and emotion of their lives, ensuring they remain unhindered and without financial worries, be it Valentine’s day, or anything else.
