CUSTOMER TRUST AS A MEDIATING FACTOR IN ADOPTION OF UPI PAYMENT APPLICATIONS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM GUJARAT STATE

This paper discusses the mediating variable to be used, which is the customer trust in taking up Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payment applications in Gujarat State. With the sphere of financial technology evolving at a frightening rate, and the government openly embracing people to a cashless economy, online solutions in payment systems are becoming even more popular among buyers. Such technologies are however greatly influenced by their psychological and behavioral factors particularly customer trust. The correlation analysis in this research will be based on the relationship between the perceived usefulness and ease of use, customer trust and UPI adoption using primary data obtained on 70 respondents. Statistical analysis was performed on the data such as Pearson correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and one sample t-test. The findings indicate that although the respondents have a positive perception on the application of the UPI, the relationship between the perceived usefulness, ease of use, customer trust as well as UPI adoption are not significant in the sample. The study shows that other problems such as the security concern, digital literacy, and the trustworthiness of the services may exert a greater influence on the adoption behavior. KEY WORDS: UPI Adoption, Digital Payment Applications, Customer Trust, Technology Acceptance, Financial Technology (FinTech), Consumer Behaviour, Digital Transactions, Gujarat State