Valentine’s Day sales see prepaid orders overtake COD

Prepaid orders have outpaced cash on delivery (COD) for the first time in four years, with UPI and credit-based options driving the shift. During the Valentine’s Day sale, prepaid purchases made up 55% of transactions, with Tier 3 cities showing a growing preference for digital payments.

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For the first time in four years, prepaid orders have exceeded cash-on-delivery (COD) transactions, according to GoKwik. During the Republic Day sale, prepaid orders surpassed COD by 11%, while in the recent Valentine’s Day sale, they accounted for 55% of total orders.

UPI remained the top prepaid payment method, contributing 46% of prepaid orders during the Valentine’s sale—marking a 4% increase from last year. The adoption of credit-based payments also grew, accounting for 7% of prepaid transactions, up by 3% year-on-year. “We started seeing this trend during the festive season where prepaid orders increased by a significant margin yet COD continued to be the dominant preference amongst shoppers. This is a significant milestone led by UPI’s increasing popularity coupled with the product interventions and offerings that we have enabled on these brands via our checkout,” said Chirag Taneja, Co-Founder and CEO of GoKwik.

A shift in consumer behavior was particularly evident in Tier 3 cities, where prepaid purchases of high-value items increased, raising the prepaid average order value (AOV) from 1,074 to 1,211 during the Valentine’s sale. Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities also saw stronger prepaid adoption, reinforcing a nationwide shift in online shopping behavior. Prepaid AOV grew by 12%, while COD AOV remained steady, similar to the Republic Day sale trend.

GoKwik has worked closely with partners to integrate credit-based payment options at checkout. “With flexible payment options, aspirations are meeting affordability increasingly, leading to a surge in prepaid purchases, and driving demand, a trend we also saw during the Republic Day sale period,” Taneja added.

The Valentine’s sale period saw a 33% rise in order volume, driven by beauty (35%), fashion (27%), and healthcare (11%). Tier 3 cities contributed 41% of these orders, with Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities accounting for 31% and 26%, respectively.

With India’s US$ 20 billion personal gifting market expanding, evolving shopping behaviors and digital payment adoption are set to further transform the D2C landscape. GoKwik, which supports over 10,000 brands and 130 million shoppers, continues to enable seamless digital transactions across key e-commerce categories.