Kathmandu, Nov. 23 -- Digital payments accounted for about 40 percent of the sales during the recent festival shopping spree, reflecting the growing preference of shoppers to pay electronically, e-commerce operators said.

"Close to 40 percent of the entire sales volume is now paid for by bank cards and eSewa wallet. This is a significant increase compared to the same time last year when the contribution was only 13 percent of total sales," Lino Ahlering, managing director of Daraz, told the Post.

"In fact, 45 percent of the total 11.11 sales were paid through debit or credit cards and eSewa. This is huge for a country like Nepal where cash on delivery used to be much more popular in the past," Ahlering said.

Amitesh Roy, chief commerci...