Gen Z spending habits: Convenience is key, prefer quick commerce and longer repayment tenure, finds report

Gen Z's approaches credit and spending differently from older generations, credit-on-UPI platform Kiwi said in a report this month. It said internal data showed that younger consumers prefer convenience, use credit for larger purchases and opt for longer repayment tenures when financing high-value expenses.

“Gen Z is not necessarily using credit more frequently; they are using it differently. Our data shows that convenience is playing a much bigger role in how younger consumers make payment and credit decisions,” Siddharth Mehta, Co-Founder and COO of Kiwi, said in the release. 

Gen Z spending habits: Convenience is key

According to Mehta, Gen Z opts for quick commerce for everyday purchases and credit for larger expenses, where “the focus is increasingly on ease and flexibility rather than simply maximising rewards”.

Here's what the report found:

• Gen Z spends about 20% more on rental and education payments compared to older generations. This points to a greater use of credit towards essential and recurring expenses, the report said.
• It added that the data showed Gen Z prefers convenience. This is especially “visible” in grocery spending, where these customers spending three times more on quick commerce. 
• When it comes to quick commerce spending, the segment accounts for 2.6% of Gen Z's wallet share, compared to traditional retailers such as D-Mart at 0.85%. This is in contrast to consumers aged over 30 years, who allocate a larger share of their grocery spending to physical retail stores and local shops.
• The data also shows that younger consumers tend to use credit cards more selectively, with a preference for larger-ticket purchases rather than frequent, smaller transactions, the report said.
• It added that Gen Z appears less focused on optimising cashback across multiple cards, instead showing a stronger preference for convenience. 
• Kiwi has observed a 10% higher share of wallet among Gen Z users compared to millennials, indicating greater engagement with a payment proposition that combines the convenience of UPI with access to credit. 
• While EMI adoption is lower among Gen Z, those who opt for EMI tend to make higher-value purchases and choose longer repayment tenures. 
• For Kiwi users, the report said data indicated that younger consumers are willing to opt for longer repayment periods to keep their monthly outgo manageable, even when this may result in a higher overall financing cost as the longer-tenure financing can carry interest charges. 

“The trends point to a shift in how India's younger consumers approach credit, with convenience, flexibility and affordability of monthly payments emerging as important factors in their spending and financing decisions,” the report added. 

Kiwi is a fintech company that builds credit-on-UPI products for Indian consumers. It has issued more than 2 lakh RuPay credit cards in two years, as per the statement. The release covered internal data from 25,000 users on the platform between June to July 2026, it added. 

Digital payments at core for Gen Z

An earlier study by SalarySe showed that digital payments formed the core of Gen Z's financial management. It analysed spending habits of more than 5.2 lakh users and noted that spending by India's youngest workforce is concentrated around a few core categories that support everyday living — from managing utility bills, recurring subscriptions and financial services. 

• Majority of Gen Z's monthly wallet is spent on everyday essentials and recurring financial commitments rather than big-ticket lifestyle purchases, the SalarySe study found. 
• The analysis also highlighted evolving recurring payment habits for entertainment subscriptions. 
• Beyond entertainment, recurring mandates increasingly span utilities, financial services and other digital subscriptions, which highlighted the expanding role of UPI and AutoPay in managing everyday digital payments.

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