Customer Influence as a Catalyst for Digital Payment Adoption by Street Vendors

Customers as well as payment systems are the lifeline of any business, as there can be no business without payments and customers; they both are the indispensable part of any business. This study aims at finding customer influence on driving vendors towards a cashless economy. It aims to know whether vendors have adopted such payments because of the customer awareness or due to their preference to pay digitally even for small amount or whether it is adopted to provide it as the alternative payment and prevent them from switching to other vendors. By integrating quantitative survey data with qualitative vendor narratives, it aims at highlighting the behavioural constructs of the vendors. The data has been collected from thirty-two street vendors. Both qualitative and quantitative responses were recorded and analyzed. It helped to know that customers were the significant influencer of digital payment adoption among street vendors, as earlier they tend to lose various customers. Thus, in present time vendors have recognized the strategic value of offering alternative payment methods i.e. digital payments, not just for convenience but to retain customers and survive in this competitive market.