Repayments by small ticket borrowers following the buy now pay later model to borrow from mom and pop stores surged this Diwali according to data compiled by OkCredit.
Most of these shops usually struggle to get their dues back in time, however, this festive season saw more than 30 lakh customers coming forward to settle their credit. The data points to a virtuous cycle wherein more repayments have enabled merchants to extend more credit, which in turn has led to a growth in customers. Credit given per active merchant on OkCredit went up by 23% and these merchants added 1 million customers in the festive period, according to a release by the firm.
Digital payments have played a huge role in helping mom and pop stores recover credit as the number of credit lines settled digitally have gone up by 100% since last year, showing adoption of online payments in digital book keeping.
The increased repayments and growth in retail SMBs also points to a healthy recovery in the economy, especially tier-2 and tier-3 towns, the release said. OkCredit’s data shows that there has seen a 70% increase in retail SMBs adopting a digital solution to manage their books. Out of 35 states and union territories, 25 have seen business growth as compared to last year, while others have remained more or less stagnant. Merchants in states such as Kerala and Karnataka have seen 8% growth in business. The North-Eastern states have seen the highest growth, topped by Manipur where transactions per merchant increased by 22%.
