A look at how India’s timeless love affair for gold has gone digital with Paytm.
India’s love for gold goes back several centuries. Even today, gold is more than just a precious metal to us. Gold is spiritually and culturally woven into India’s heart, and in everything we do. At Paytm, we wanted to make everything about the great Indian gold love easier!
Cut to 2021, with consistent innovations at Paytm, India’s ancient love affair with gold is raging with a modern twist – India’s love for gold has gone digital. Buying and owning gold has never been easier!
The revolution of buying gold on Paytm has captivated the new age Indian’s mind. We have made this possible through a series of user-centric product innovations that have made gold available to all, with just a few taps.
We launched the power to buy digital gold on Paytm in November 2016, enabling crores of Indians to buy gold for as low as Re. 1. Shortly after, we gave buyers the option to get their gold delivered across the country, whenever they want! We know that gold is at the centre of all our celebrations and traditions, so it made perfect sense to make gifting gold possible on Paytm. Starting February 2018, for the first time ever, investors could create an SIP in gold! And in our quest to remove all limits on India’s love for gold, we now let you buy gold upto Rs. 1 crore in one go!
We find it heartwarming that the adoption of digital gold has mirrored India’s eternal love for gold across the country.
25% of all gold buyers come from UP alone, followed by West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar are not too far behind either.
It is a sign of our innate love for gold that penetration of digital gold has gone straight to the heart of India! The top cities list is not dominated by the usually expected tier 1 metro cities. The cities with the most gold buyers are Lucknow, Jaipur, Patna, New Delhi, and Murshidabad!
With digital gold, we are seeing an increasing number of young Indians now making an early start in buying gold, like never before. 28% of gold buyers are under 30 years of age! The city with the youngest buyers: Delhi – 12% under 25 years of age.
A major driving factor for the mass adoption of digital gold has been the removal of the entry barriers of price. Paytm has empowered Indians to buy the priceless metal in quantities not possible before. 5 lakh+ Indians have bought a touch of gold to their lives for only Re.1 on Paytm, while on an average day, more than 12 kgs of gold is bought! ‘How much’ doesn’t matter anymore!
With India’s love for gold, just once isn’t enough! On Paytm, for the first time, investors have the ability to create a weekly or monthly SIP in gold. 1.8 lakh users have started an SIP in gold, and are able to accumulate gold in a steady, disciplined manner, getting the benefit of drops in price. 32% of these have started an SIP for as low as Rs. 100!
We have delivered gold to the safety and comfort of countless homes. A total of 270 kgs of gold have been delivered across the country, from as low as 1g to as high as 320g in a single delivery! We are seeing that buyers who get gold delivered, redeem 21% of their total gold, while staying invested in the remaining 79%, on an average. Some for the kitchen, some for the soul, right?
Gold is seen as an important part of a diversified investment portfolio. On a closer look at the price of gold and transactions, we noticed some interesting investment patterns.
In July ‘20, as the price of gold went up by 13%, selling transactions increased by 55%! These investors were able to book profits as high as 11.5% over a month.
On 23 Feb, 2021, after a steady increase, gold was at Rs. 48,440. Over the next month, it dropped to Rs. 46,000. Buying transactions in the same period increased by 76%. As the price of gold gradually increased to Rs. 49,460 in April, these users were able to book profits as high as 8.5% in a month!
Highest profit booked over lifetime by a user: Rs. 7,69,612!
We can see that a trend of adding gold to investment portfolios as a buffer in times of volatility, has definitely emerged. 50% of investors in mutual funds and equities on Paytm also buy gold.
The idea of owning gold has affected many sleep cycles! Amit from Mumbai has stayed up many a night eyeing gold, and has done 188 transactions between 12-4 am! Prasad, also from Mumbai, has started many days with a golden good morning, doing 388 transactions between 4-8 am.
While Indians are buying gold day and night, the love for gold knows no bounds during auspicious times. The most preferred time for buying gold in the week is Tuesdays at 10am, and Akshaya Tritiya sees almost a 20x increase in gifting!
The journey & user adoption for Digital Gold on Paytm has been exciting and humbling, to say the least. We are absolutely overwhelmed with the response that we have got for Digital Gold in the last few years, and we believe that this audience will benefit from our other investment offerings. From the very day of our launch, we have constantly worked towards bringing in the simplest and most convenient way of investing for you, & we strongly feel that there is much more for all of us with respect to adding new features to our gold offering.