Online Amazon shopping, Jet Airways booking now easy via RuPay

We are glad to offer a wider horizon to our cardholders to transact online, says NPCI managing director

After Flipkart, home-grown payments gateway RuPay has tied up with Amazon and one of the largest carriers Jet Airways.

With this, the RuPay debit card holders can now shop best deals on Amazon and book air tickets on Jet Airways, the Reserve Bank-promoted National Payment Corporation which issues the RuPay cards said in a statement today.

"Acceptance on Amazon is a breakthrough for us. We are glad to offer a wider horizon to our cardholders to transact online. Also, our integration with Jet Airways will definitely benefit our cardholders,," says NPCI managing director AP Hota said.

Commenting on the tie-up, Amazon India general manager for payments Srinivas Rao said, the arrangement is in line with its strategy of offering the widest set of customers a variety of payment options that will enhance their shopping experience.

The NPCI had last week announced that it has tied up with Flipkart, Snapdeal and LIC who are among over 15,000 merchants who will be accepting the RuPay cards, which are the homegrown alternative to foreign gateways like Visa and MasterCard.

Following the tie-up Jet Airways has begun accepting RuPay cards on their site for air-ticketing, airlines' senior vice-president Gaurang Shetty said.

NPCI has already issued more than 30 million RuPay cards, which are accepted at all ATMs, and by 9.8 lakhs POS terminals and over 15000 online merchants.

The domestic online retail industry, as per a Crisil report, is expected to touch Rs 50,400 crore by FY16 from Rs 1,500 crore in FY08.

According to online industry body IAMAI, travel has emerged out as the most transacted segment in the online space accounting for 60 percent of online payments. The value of online payments for travel industry stood at Rs 50,000 crore in FY13.