Dhanteras: Ticket size of jewellery purchases shrinks

Chennai: The average ticket size of jewellery purchases during Dhanteras through credit and debit cards dipped 66 per cent despite gold and silver prices rising over 20 per cent over last year.  

Jewellery spends accounted for 15 per cent of the total volume of transactions and 22 per cent of the value of transactions through credit and debit cards, as per the data from payment processing company Worldline India. There was a three times increase in the number of transactions from the previous year, largely because credit card issuance went up by 20 per cent, or 9 million new cards were added between last year and this Dhanteras.  

However, the value remained almost constant despite the rise in prices of gold and silver. On the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), the price of gold went up 20 per cent from Rs 31,804 per 10 gm to Rs 38,434 per 10 gm between the last Dhanteras and this Dhanteras.

Silver prices too went up 21 per cent from Rs 38,649 per kg in 2018 Dhanteras to Rs 46,844 per kg this time. Even if the volumes had remained the same, the value should have increased by 20 per cent. The flat growth in value indicates that people were not comfortable spending much on jewellery.

Apart from lesser value purchases, more number of transactions also led to a decline in the average ticket size. The average ticket size dipped this year by 66 per cent to Rs 3,625.

The decline in the ticket size was also visible in apparels both on Dhanteras and Diwali. Spends at apparel stores accounted for 20 per cent of the total volume of transactions and 20 per cent of the value of transactions during Diwali. But the average ticket size dipped this year by 12 per cent to Rs. 1,992. Similarly,    spends at apparel stores accounted for 18 per cent of the total volume of transactions and 14 per cent of the value of transactions and the average ticket size dipped this year by 28 per cent to Rs 1,746.

Overall, average ticket size of credit card purchases dipped this year by 15 per cent to Rs 3,291 and average ticket size dipped this year by 7 per cent to Rs 2,202 on Dhanteras.