Demographic Differences & Shopping Behavior of Indian Middle Income Group Users of Debit Cards : an Emprical Analysis

With the advancement of technology and need towards better service provision, plastic money in form of debit or credit cards is becoming common now-a-days. These tools of purchase management are reaching into wallet of nearly all. As a result, companies are also eying to leverage card benefits as the shopping/purchase facilitator. As with the emerging equality of men and women and their role in shaping the society, both genders establish quite active response patterns with respect to debit/credit card spending and use. According to the survey of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2011, card holders have consolidated spending with a single and have reduced the use of multiple cards. In India, the proportion of single card holders had grown the most in 2011 at the 90 per cent while the card use grew at the 84 per cent, followed by Malaysia (80 per cent). The use of cards is perceived differently by various consumer classes. Women might be bigger spenders than men, but according to the survey by RBI (2011), they use their debit cards less frequently. The present study explores various behavioural aspects of use of debit cards among broad consumer classes such as Men and Women belonging to middle income group of tier II cities.