SUMMARY
The Spot Platform allows businesses to setup virtual stores on Google Pay
Google Pay's Spot platform provides APIs for user interactions
UrbanClap, Eat.fit, OvenStory and others have gone live with Spot stores on Google Pay
In September, Google hosted the Google for India event and told the world how important India is for itsfuture plans. The company envisioned being an ecosystem across hardware, software, services and products.
With this, the company announced the launch of Spot platform on Google Pay. Spot platform is Google’s way of bringing any store online. Using Spot, retail outlets and kirana stores can bring their inventory online which boosts their reach, helps them serve customers better and gives them greater traction than just walk-ins.
At present, six service providers have become the initial partners of Google Spot platform. This includes UrbanClap, Eat.fit, OvenStory, GoIbibo, redBus, and MakeMyTrip.
The Spot Platform allows stores etc to set up Spot on Google Pay — a digital storefront to create, brand and host. It is discoverable both online as well as through a physical Spot code which has NFC support so customers can scan these QR-like codes and order and pay, return for pickups, without physically opening the Google Pay app.
Google claims that the Spot platform provides APIs for user interactions like identity and payment management that utilise user and partner feedback and learnings.
The platform provides frictionless UX for key actions like signing in, payments and sharing user details. This makes the development process faster for businesses, and helps reduce customer dropoff at critical moments, such as checkout, leading to higher conversion.
To use these Spot stores, users can log in to Google Pay and click on the icon of the store. Users can directly access these stores and continue to fulfill their order within the Google Pay app.
The best part about Spot from a customer point of view is that no downloads are required of the third party app. Google says it will display Spot codes at key public locations such as airports, train stations and malls to help citizens avail services such as rides or other transit mode options or hyperlocal services easily.
Further, Spot codes can be added on packaging by retail partners to enable upselling, boost retention and create a stronger loyalty bond in the customer’s minds. Stores can even create special offers for customers through Spot and manage the customer queue during rush hours.
Google Pay now wants to be a key part of the retail value chain cycle — it started with payments and it has now expanded to online and retail shopping as well in a unique way.
