Cash-short payment options grow

Online marketplaces and mobile wallets finding more ways to cash on currency ban windfall

Quickly changing tack and game plan, online marketplaces and mobile wallets, 48 hours since the announcement of banning Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, have been busy pushing old and new digital payment options.

The aim is to hold on to their cash-based customer base, as well as maintaining their gross merchandise value targets.

Online mobile wallet major Paytm is adding a feature of geo-locating all the offline points where their wallet is accepted. Snapdeal is now accepting payments via their mobile wallet, Freecharge, on delivery of the product.

With the cash on delivery (COD) customer base accounting for 60 per cent of total transactions, online marketplaces are eager to retain this customer base but minus the hassle of getting the cash back into the company. So, instead of COD, they are opting for mobile wallet on delivery, so that people who have stopped shopping as they are staunch believers of COD can have the satisfaction of paying only when they get the product at their doorstep. This, it is hoped, would help online marketplaces get back the customers they fear losing.

Gurgaon-based Snapdeal announced on Thursday the launch of its new feature, Wallet on Delivery, allowing users to pay on delivery by using their FreeCharge wallet.

Online marketplaces are now hoping to see a significant drop in their COD transactions, a headache for them, as getting back the cash into company coffers requires spending of capital; the percentage of cancellation of orders also tends to be more.

Paytm has also started accepting payment from digi wallets on the delivery of products. MobiKwik is providing cashless payments support to Myntra, Jabong, Big Basket, Grofers, ZopNow and a few other online retailers.

Flipkart said it was accepting debit and credit card payments via mobile point of sale machines, as well as its in-house mobile payments option, PhonePe. Amazon, while pushing people to pay online, has as of now onl the option of paying via debit and credit card on delivery.

As part of its 'making India go cashless' plan, Paytm introduced a 'Nearby' feature on its platform. This will enable its customers to get information about their nearest Paytm merchant. 'Nearby' will carry a directory of Paytm's offline merchants and partners. In the first phase, it has 200,000-odd merchants. Customers on their Paytm app or web can now browse through a list of shops and locations near them that offer services like accepting Paytm, adding cash to Paytm wallet and upgrading of accounts by doing the Know Your Customer check.

The company plans to hire about 10,000 Paytm agents as it expands its offline merchant network to over two million touch-points by the end of the current financial year.