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Consumer Trust Study
Paytm Wallet & Payment gateway

PROBLEM

Despite strong adoption in metro cities, conversion rates for Paytm Wallet and the payment gateway were significantly lower in tier-1 and tier-2 markets. The team needed to understand why users hesitated to complete online payments, beyond surface-level usability issues.

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OBJECTIVE

  • Explore how users perceive trust, risk, and reliability in digital payment systems

  • Uncover mental models and emotional drivers behind payment hesitation and drop-off

  • Translate qualitative insights into actionable inputs for product and experience strategy

METHODOLOGY

  • Qualitative interviews were conducted with 24 candidates in 3 cities to understand human behaviour and the reasons that govern human behaviour for any online & offline transaction. 

TEAM & DURATION

  • Team: Cross-functional team of 3 (2 product designers, 1 product manager, 1 data analyst)

  • Role: As a Senior Product Designer I partnered with the product & data team to shape the study, conduct interviews, synthesize insights, and translate findings into product and experience implications

  • Duration: 6 weeks, from research planning through insight synthesis and recommendations

TARGET GROUP

  • Working Men & Women, Non-working women, College students. 

  •  Age : 18-35 yrs

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KEY QUESTIONS

Questions were constructed to measure the following variables: key demographic characteristics, purchasing intentions, self-efficacy, disposition to trust, perceived risk, consumer trust.

UNDERSTANDING DAILY LIFE, LIKENESS AND CHOICES

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- You have been living in this city for some time now? What do you feel about living in this city? How do you think this city shapes your lifestyle or things that we spoke about?

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- How would you see yourself if you were living in a metro like Delhi or Mumbai? What all would change? What differences do you see between your life now and life in a metro?

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- What all changes do you feel/sense? Are these favorable/unfavorable changes? How did these happen? What was your contribution in the same?

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- If I were to give you lakh rupees to spend… can you tell me where would you spend it? Whom all would you spend it on? How much would you spend on yourself? What would you buy for them? How much would you spend on each person?

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- What does technology mean to you? What all comes to your mind when I say technology? How do you use technology in your day-to-day life?

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- What kind of electronic equipment do you own/have at home? What brands did you purchase? Why did you purchase these brands/products?

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- How often do you use the internet? What is the hardware on which you use internet mobile, laptop, desktop etc.? How frequently do you access your social networking site? How do you access these sites- which device? Why not others?

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UNDERSTANDING ONLINE SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR & ROLE OF INFLUENCERS

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- So help me understand this first experience of Online Shopping? How did you decide on the portal to shop from? What was the first thing that came to your mind when you saw the portal? What were your expectations?

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-How did you pay for the product? Were the payment options enough for you?

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- Why did you not shop online this time? Did you have any fears, hesitations with shopping online?

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- Do you have any memories (good or bad) of any online shopping experience? Can you tell me in detail about this? What were you planning to purchase? How did you choose thee where to shop from? What made the experience good or bad?

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- You all must be using a locker in a bank. What we do with the locker facility- we keep our valuables/ precious items in a locker so that they are safeguarded. Similarly, if I talk about ‘Brand X’, which all aspects do you think will be put in a locker so that they are safeguarded and can be passed to further generation?

FUTURE PERSPECTIVE

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- How would the experience of shopping 2020 be like? What all would you like to shop for? What mediums do you think would be used to shop in 2020 – PC / Mobile / Tablet / future devices?

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- Is there anything you would like to change in the e-commerce portals? Is there anything that should NOT change from the way it is now? I.e. it should stay as it is?

THEMES

Themes were generated from the analysis of the transcribed interview answers. A prominent group of candidates:

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  1. Spoke about lack of trust for online transactions; could not understand the concept of digital money transfer.

  2. Mentioned the trust with the brand to be driven by word of mouth, store presence in the locality, trust seals, celebrity endorsements.

  3. Indirectly associated with the lack of self-efficacy for online payment.

INSIGHTS

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  1. Trust in digital payments was driven more by familiarity and social proof than by interface clarity

  2. Many users lacked confidence in how digital money actually worked, leading to fear of loss or irreversible errors

  3. Physical presence (stores, agents, offline visibility) played a significant role in establishing credibility

  4. First-time or low-frequency users needed reassurance before motivation — incentives alone were not enough

RECOMMENDATION

  1. Introduce a visible trustmark and security reassurance system during key payment moments

  2. Use cashback and low-risk incentives to help users build confidence through repeat usage

  3. Support trust through offline-to-online continuity, including local messaging and brand presence

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