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Top1. Introduction
The rise in e-commerce industry is a big hit for a developing nation like India. E-commerce has opened new gateways to provide more convenience to its customers through its better services and make the things easier and hassle-free. The entry of retailers on the virtual platform is transforming the Indian consumers and their buying behaviors. The shopping orientations are changing from being experiential shopping to convenient shopping and the aspiration for further convenience is simply rising. Adoption of technology by the Indians is setting an example for the others.
The attraction towards online shopping is extremely high, the reason being huge and exciting discounts and offers to the consumers if they shop. There have been a good number of drawbacks which lessen the charm of shopping online. The highest amongst all is the issues rising due to making payments to these virtual vendors. A study conducted by Priya (2014) revealed that Debit Cards and Net banking lead the segment of payments through online mode with 61% followed by credit cards (50%), COD (24%), prepaid cash cards (10%) and the last in the row is Payments through Mobile which is merely 3%.
Considering the penetration of mobiles and its usage success stories all over the world, a good number of companies are exploring this new mode of making payments. A mobile payment system in Kenya, M-Pesa, had been successful in targeting socio-economic groups and geographies and simultaneously drawn its attention to mobile as a provider of financial services. M-Pesa as a payment system has fulfilled many of the immediate needs of people like safety and convenience associated with cashless payments, and ease of money transfer.
The growth of smart phones is projected at a lightning speed. The results from a survey conducted by Gartner revealed the growth in the number of smart phones users in India by 2018 will be as high as 500million. Additionally, many of these smart phone users between these three years will use the internet for the first time. Hence, this segment of consumers represents a huge area of potential for the companies.
Hence, under the given situations while considering the changing dynamics of consumers and markets, the need for undertaking research is urgent. This study explores the factors influencing Indian consumers in adoption of mobile wallet services. It applies the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT Model) to propose a research model that incorporates trust and promotional deals as enhancing constructs to predict users’ motivations for adopting a mobile wallet.