Non-metro cities emerge as biggest spenders during cricket season: Visa report

Visa has unveiled consumer spending trends for the 2024 summer cricket season. According to Visa Consulting and Analytics insights, while there’s an overall increase in online Visa transactions across all segments, food and grocery delivery apps emerge as a clear winner with a 23 percent surge, indicating India’s online spending potential.

Visa’s analysis dives deeper to highlight that on match days, grocery delivery apps witnessed a 5 percent uptick, reinforcing the growing consumer preference for convenience and speedy delivery as fans order from the comfort of their homes.

While online spends continue to grow, non-metro cities hit a six in-consumer spending:

As the retail boom expands beyond metros, cities like Dharamshala, Mullanpur and Vishakapatnam emerge as the biggest daily spenders. This points to a shift in consumer spending fueled by growing disposable incomes and the increasing adoption of digital payments outside of urban metros.

Tier-1 match host cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru continue to observe a steady increase in daily in-store spends.

Ahmedabad also joined the party with a significant 12 percent rise in credit card spends.

Notably, the average transaction size for mass-market and mass-affluent products jumped by 11 percent and 12 percent respectively on match days in host cities.

Beyond a passion for major sporting events, these insights show the changing landscape of consumer payments in India and the growing popularity of convenient and innovative digital payment solutions.