‘Tech-savvy’ teens still prefer cash payment: Survey

The survey reveals that 84 percent of Indian's teens love to shop online.

New Delhi: India’s teenagers who are digital natives, love online shopping, a trend that has only but accelerated during the last six months owing to the pandemic, reveals a survey.

Ironically, digital savvy teens are stuck paying with cash as they are not a part of the online financial ecosystem, reveals the survey conducted by FamPay, India’s first Neo Bank for teenagers.

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The survey was conducted in August 2020 with 1,200 teenagers in the age group of 10-19 years, across India with a majority of respondents being Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata. Of these, 68 percent were male and 32 percent were female.

The survey reveals that 84 percent of Indian’s teens love to shop online. Despite the digital India trend, 67 percent of teens continue to pay in cash and 52 percent of teens pay through their parent’s debit/credit card, thereby continuing to be outside the digital financial ecosystem.

India’s teens spend money on food, clothes and gadgets in that order. While spends on food is the highest among both boys and girls, 64 percent of boys spend more on gadgets as compared to 21 percent of girls. Teen girls, 66 percent of them prefer to spend more on clothes compared to 49 percent of boys. Teens have strong preferences when it comes to brands. Apple, Nike, H&M and Netflix emerged as the most popular brands among this cohort in their respective categories.

The survey reveals that teens get money on demand from their parents. Nearly 50 percent percent of all teens confirmed that they get money when they ask for it. Only 23 percent receive pocket money and 25 percent said that they typically receive money on their birthdays or from visiting relatives during festivals. Surprisingly, only 4 percent teens receive money for chores.

When it comes to their social media behaviour, Instagram is the most popular channel with nearly 80 percent of teens spending time on it, followed by YouTube and WhatsApp. Watching content is what 66 percent of teens do most on social platforms, followed by consuming news, and being in touch with friends, in that order.

The survey confirms that they are vocal about issues. A majority 55 percent are passionate about “Made in India”, 40 percent support the women empowerment agenda, 28 percent support Black Lives Matter and 19 percent support the LTBTQ cause.

Teens cite mutual respect and trust as being important aspects of their relationship with parents. Nearly 36 percent say that they would like their decisions to be respected more while 34 percent said that they would like their parents to not stress so much over their studies. Interestingly, more teen girls would like their parents to trust their decisions, while not stressing about their studies was highlighted more by teen boys. 20 percent of teenagers said that they would like their parents to spend more time with them.

The lockdown has disrupted routines for teens, just like everyone else. 20 percent teens miss eating out, 11 percent said they missed going to school, while an overwhelming 50 percent cite missing their friends the most during this time.

Sambhav Jain, Co-Founder, FamPay, said: “FamPay’s mission has been to raise a new, financially aware generation of Indians who understand the fundamentals of personal finance and are capable of making decisions in their best long term interest. In line with our mission we have been continuously interacting with the GenZ to understand their views not only on money but also around their lifestyle choices and issues that matter to them. Our aim is to include these millions of teens into the Digital India ecosystem enabling them to spend judiciously and imbibe financial literacy from the habit-building teenage.”