Early Adoption, Usage Intensity, and Barriers to Unified Payments Interface Among Fixed-Store Merchants in Jaipur: Secondary Analysis of a 2017 Cross-Sectional Survey

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was launched in April 2016 and made available through participating banks in August 2016. A survey of Jaipur merchants conducted in August–September 2017 therefore provides a rare view of UPI during its earliest diffusion stage rather than evidence about India’s mature contemporary payment ecosystem. This study estimated early UPI adoption and usage intensity, compared UPI users with non-users, described motivations and barriers, and examined factors independently associated with the adoption of any digital-payment method among small fixed-store merchants. A secondary analysis was undertaken using an anonymised open dataset of 1,003 fixed-store merchants. The original survey used a listing exercise followed by random sampling stratified by industry and digital readiness. Descriptive statistics, exact binomial confidence intervals, Fisher’s exact tests, Mann–Whitney U tests, and multivariable binary logistic regression were applied. Because only 15 merchants reported UPI use, UPI-specific multivariable modelling was considered statistically inappropriate. The adjusted model therefore used adoption of any digital-payment method as the outcome. Fifteen merchants reported UPI use, giving a prevalence of 1.50% (95% exact CI [0.84%, 2.45%]). Adoption of any digital method was 42.0%, led by mobile wallets (34.5%), point-of-sale systems (12.7%), and internet banking (11.4%). All UPI users had smartphones, internet access, and bank accounts. UPI users reported greater current customer demand for digital payment than non-users (median 15% vs. 5%, p < .001), but annual sales, profit, enterprise age, and employee count did not differ significantly. Only seven of the 15 users reported a positive UPI share of customer receipts; across all users, the median was 0% and the mean was 4.13%. Among 582 non-adopters of any digital method, frequently mentioned barriers were customer choice (54.1%), lack of awareness (41.6%), fear of being cheated (41.4%), and unwillingness to learn (28.7%). In adjusted analysis, every 10-percentage-point increase in customer demand was associated with nearly twice the odds of any-digital adoption (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.99, 95% CI [1.67, 2.38]). Internet access (aOR = 6.60), WhatsApp use (aOR = 3.95), smartphone ownership (aOR = 2.32), and tax-identification possession (aOR = 2.24) were also associated with adoption. In Jaipur in 2017, UPI adoption was nascent, and nominal use often did not correspond to substantial commercial usage. Infrastructure appeared necessary but insufficient; customer demand, digital familiarity, awareness, and trust were central. The findings should not be generalised to present-day UPI usage, street vendors, rural merchants, or Rajasthan as a whole.