Factors Affecting the Adoption of Digital Payment Systems in Sikkim: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Digital Payments has made significant impact in the Indian Economy. India has been leading the world’s digitization initiatives especially regarding Digital Payments platforms. This paper seeks to study the level of awareness among the customers of banks in Sikkim regarding digital payments. This study also investigates the factors that affect the adoption of digital payments in the state of Sikkim. For the study's purpose, a sample of 150 banking customers were selected from all six districts of Sikkim. Descriptive analysis such as Weighted Mean, Standard Deviation, Percentage have been used to draw inferences from the data.  Four factors affecting the adoption of digital payments, namely social influence, facilitating conditions, perceived usefulness and trust were considered for this study. It was found that social influence and perceived usefulness had the most impact for adopting digital payment systems in Sikkim. The respondents had a moderate awareness level regarding digital payment systems in Sikkim. Digital financial literacy initiatives should be adopted to increase the digital payment literacy among the banking customers in Sikkim.