How 16.73 billion UPI transactions killed the ubiquitous toffee business | Mint
Source: Live Mint
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions rose to 16.73 billion for the month of December 2024, according to data collected from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) website. This rise is killing the nation’s Toffee or candy business.
The transactions rose 8 per cent month-on-month (MoM) to its December level, when compared with 15.28 billion transactions in the previous month of November 2024.
India shopkeepers always had a “chutta nahi hai” or “no change available” mindset. Before UPI transactions were disseminated, the shopkeepers gave the shoppers candy or toffees in exchange for the narrative that they didn’t have change available.
This practice has now nearly depleted as UPI is changing the financial landscape of India’s payment system, and this transition to digital payment skips the requirement of shopkeepers to keep candy or toffee in handy.
Commenting on this narrative, Harshad Shah, a chartered accountant, said, “Before UPI, shopkeepers would trade Toffees for small change, stating shortage of Coins.”
“These small amounts of change over weeks, would amount to becoming vast sums of Money, which were never returned to customers at all, because Toffees were given to customers, in lieu of small change,” said Shah in the post on social media platform LinkedIn.
Shah also highlighted how people are now paying the exact amount due with their digital payment applications without the need to carry or ask for a change in a transaction.
Citing the sales drop of industry-major brands like Mondelez, Mars, Nestle, Perfetti, Parle & ITC, he said, “People paid the Exact Amount using UPI, with no scope for exchanging small change, ultimately eating up the daily sales of Toffees.”
Toffee in exchange for coins, UPI has successfully changed this consumer behaviour, and now, as people use digital payments more than cash payments, this new technology is impacting business in a completely different sector.
“Technology can impact any Business,” said Shah, focusing on how no toffee-making company could have thought that a financial product could hamper their business.
