The Digital Drain: How Quick Commerce and UPI are Impacting Your Wallet
Have you ever noticed how our parents earned less at our age, yet still managed to educate us, fulfill our needs, and provide for everything? On the other hand, here we are, barely surviving the month even with a ₹80,000 salary. The root of this problem lies in every Indian's pocket today: the phone, and the apps within it that are now causing more harm than good. This has become a major trap that's emptying your pockets, and today, we're going to break it down. This is a bit of a tech-plus-finance discussion, and I'm not here to lecture you. I'm just here to help you understand how to save the money you work so hard for. So, let's start by understanding the problem.
The Problem: Simplified Payments, Escalated Spending
Making payments has become incredibly simple these days. UPI, UPI-enabled credit cards, and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) schemes have made transactions seamless. Quick commerce apps like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto have perfectly capitalized on this.
Growing Quick Commerce Market: India's quick commerce market was valued at $3 billion (over ₹25,000 crores) in 2024 and is projected to reach $35 billion by 2030.
Altered Shopping Habits: These platforms have completely changed shopping habits and skillfully play with your mind. They employ two primary methods to achieve this.
How Apps Empty Your Wallet
1. Targeting Gen Z and Millennials
Core User Base: Gen Z and Millennials make up 70% of these apps' user base.
Paying for Convenience: These generations are willing to pay a premium for convenience. They often struggle with financial management, coming from a "reels culture" that craves speed and instant gratification. Quick commerce fulfills this very demand.
Exploiting Financial Naivety: These apps have chosen an audience that is somewhat "financially naive." While they earn, these platforms can entice them to buy things they don't need.
Lack of Patience: Previously, people had patience. Now, if you crave ice cream at 11 PM, you just tap – no need for the effort of going to a shop.
Proof of Impulse Buying: The average order value on these apps is around ₹500-₹600.
If someone goes to buy ice cream, they might see an offer like "add ₹50 worth of items for free delivery." They'll end up buying those ₹50 chips just to avail the offer.
This high average order value indicates that people aren't making large, planned purchases, but rather small, unplanned ones.
2. Using Dark Patterns
Platforms use dark patterns to encourage more spending:
Creating Urgency: Phrases like "Only two left in stock" create urgency, implying you'll miss out if you don't buy immediately.
Irresistible Deals: Displaying deals that are too tempting to refuse.
Hidden Charges: Small hidden charges like sales fee, delivery fee, and handling fee are added, which are often not visible until you click a small arrow.
Subscription Traps: Selling subscriptions that don't truly save money and are very difficult to cancel.
App Design: The app's design, button placement, and colors are all crafted to encourage more spending.
Creative Notifications: Notifications have also become highly creative.
Behavioral Prediction: These apps aren't just for delivery; they're designed to predict your behavior. Every click, every scroll, every "add to cart" is tracked.
Manipulating Desires: Items you viewed but didn't buy will appear first on your next login. This model tracks not just your shopping history, but also when you order, what categories you prefer, and how long you spend on the app. This makes you feel like, "Oh, I needed this," when in reality, you were made to want that item.
The Cost of Fast Delivery
While these two methods drain your wallet, this fast delivery comes at a significant cost:
Dark Stores: These platforms operate from dark stores, which are not typical grocery shops. They are small, hidden warehouses located in the middle of cities.
Unhygienic Conditions: They lack regular health inspections. Reports from cities like Mumbai and Hyderabad have revealed unhygienic conditions, rats, and expired products in these dark stores.
Pressure on Delivery Riders: Who bears the brunt of that 10-minute delivery promise? The delivery riders. For them, every traffic signal becomes a race, leading to numerous accidents each year.
Rating System Impact: Rider ratings are crucial. If a delivery isn't on time, their pay is cut. If a customer doesn't rate them well, they get flagged, which limits future orders.
Convenience at Their Risk: This 10-minute convenience comes at their risk.
Forced Habits: Online groceries aren't the problem. The problem is, who asked for 10-minute delivery? They introduced it, and now they're making us accustomed to it. Over 50% of total online grocery orders in India now come from quick commerce. This needs to stop.
The Dark Side of UPI: Convenience vs. Overspending
This discussion isn't just about quick commerce; it's about how technology is making you poorer, and UPI plays a significant role in this.
UPI's Double-Edged Sword: In cities where "time is money," UPI has a dark side.
Survey Findings: Recent surveys of 276 candidates showed that 74% believed their expenses increased due to UPI. In cities like Chennai and Mumbai, 79.7% reported overspending due to UPI. This means 8 out of 10 people are spending more because the process is too easy.
Declining Savings: A survey of 192 candidates revealed that 80% reported a decrease in their savings.
Loss of "Pain of Payment":
Cash Transaction: When you pay with cash, you physically take out notes, feeling the money leaving your hands. This sensation isn't there for ₹1200, but if you take out ₹10,000, you physically see how many notes it is. This "pain of payment," as psychologists call it, makes you think twice about future expenses.
Digital Transactions: With the latest payment methods like UPI and UPI-enabled credit cards, it's just a tap or a scan, and the money is gone instantly. There's no resistance. This ease leads to impulse purchases.
Review Your History: Check your app transaction history. Analyze what you truly needed, and you'll likely find a lot of unnecessary spending. This ease of spending is why everyone has iPhones today.
Tech's Perpetual Trap: Whenever new tech emerges, companies find new ways to extract money from it. The lesson here is that these are just tools; what matters is how you use them.
Practical Tips to Break the Trap and Save Money
Here are some simple and practical tips to save your hard-earned money:
Tip 1: Set a Daily Use Wallet for UPI.
Set your default UPI account to a dedicated daily use wallet. Transfer only ₹1000-₹2000 into it each week. This keeps your main account untouched and limits your spending. Once the balance is gone, spending stops.
Tip 2: Designate Cash-Only Days.
Decide on one or two days a week when you'll only use cash. You'll notice that spending becomes more thoughtful when you physically handle money. This boosts your spending awareness and helps break the habit of relying on apps. For fun, call it "No-Tap Tuesday" or "Cash-Only Friday."
Tip 3: Go to the Store for Groceries.
While it's okay to use quick commerce apps for urgent needs two or three times a month, don't make it a daily habit. Long-term, it reduces your physical activity, which can lead to health issues. If you go offline for bread, you'll likely only buy bread, not an unnecessary packet of chips alongside it.
Tip 4: Set and Stick to a Budget.
In finance, the rule is: Income - Savings = Expenses.
If you earn ₹80,000, first set aside your savings. Then, allocate the remaining amount.
Create a detailed budget at the beginning of each month. Decide how much you'll spend on groceries, entertainment, and travel. This helps you track where your money is going.
When making UPI payments, keep your budget in mind. You can use your phone's notes app or a small diary to track this.
Tip 5: Regularly Check Transactions.
Review your UPI transactions daily or at least once a week. If you tend to forget, set a reminder in a task app.
Knowing where and how much you're spending provides a clear picture and prevents shock at the end of the month. You'll see how small payments like a cup of coffee or a packet of chips add up to a significant amount.
Tip 6: Avoid Impulse Buys.
When you feel like ordering something from a quick commerce app or see something online, wait 10 minutes. Add the item to your cart and set a 10-minute timer.
Most of the time, that impulse will pass. You'll realize you don't actually need it. A small pause can save your money.
Tip 7: Manage Notifications.
Take control of notifications from quick commerce and other shopping apps. Turning them off or limiting them will save you from constant temptation. You can use Android's notification management feature to specifically disable marketing notifications.
The EMI and "Buy Now, Pay Later" Trap
These are just some of the traps. There are countless ways to waste money today.
EMI Trap: Offline stores at least required a down payment. Now, there's often "zero down payment."
An iPhone might seem affordable at "₹3000 per month for 24 months," but every EMI includes interest. You're not buying a phone; you're just paying a monthly rent for that lifestyle.
EMI plans are so easily integrated into apps that people don't realize they're taking out a loan. No need to go to the bank, submit documents, or argue with anyone. That's the trap. When getting a loan becomes so easy, people stop thinking.
Buy Now, Pay Later: This is another problematic scheme.
In-App Wallets: Never add money to website-specific wallets, as you can add it, but often can't withdraw it.
Gen Z and Millennials in EMI Culture: Today's Gen Z and Millennials are growing up with EMI culture. Getting a credit card has become a primary preference for them, and everyone wants an expensive phone, which is a trap in itself.
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