DIGITAL PAYMENT PATHWAYS: EXPECTATION VS REALITY -A STUDY OF SMALL SHOPS IN RURAL AREAS.

The paper attempts to investigate the advancement of digital payment technology and how it practically makes any impact on day-to-day small-scale businesses. The study is based on small merchandiser perspective and their experiences regarding digital payment systems. This is research conducted in a small district named Bankura, West Bengal, India, among the small merchandisers to find their opinion about Digital Payment Pathway. A small-scale follow-up survey was made via verbal interaction. Both qualitative and quantitative research has been made among the small shop owners in rural areas of Bankura, West Bengal, India to investigate the impact of advancement of Digital Payment Technologies into their businesses. Throughout the research it was discovered that though the merchandiser were very much aware of the payment pathways, they are very reluctant to make full use of it. There is a significant amount of knowledge gap between the digital payment service provider and the small-scale merchandisers. There are also some practical barriers in implementing the methods in their day-to-day businesses. Considering the findings, the research tries to suggest some alternative ways to encourage the small-scale merchandiser to use more digital Payment transaction in their day-to-day businesses. The research contributes toward hassle free, efficient, easily accessible, and easily accountable financial transactions. It also tries to bring fairness in small scale business transactions and helps government to accounts and monitor day to day small scale transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]