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Mumbai-based mPoS (mobile point-of-sale) solution provider, ePaisa has clubbed digital wallet with its mPoS to enable merchants accept wallet payments through one platform.
ePaisa has tied up with wallet providers like Paytm, Citrus Pay and Mobikwik to enable retailers, restaurateurs, kirana stores and other offline businesses to accept wallet payments with convenience.
With this, ePaisa merchants will be able to accept payments from around 150 Mn mobile wallet users and get the funds into their bank account in one business day.
Besides, the customers, who have been using their wallets for online purchases, will now be able to make payments without requiring an internet connection.
Siddharth Arora, founder & CEO of ePaisa said that offline businesses will immensely benefit with this move as merchants will be able to drive more traffic to their store and get promoted on major wallet apps and websites.”
How will it work?
Payment through ePaisa is as easy as paying through any wallet. For the payments to be made through wallets there will be an alert on user’s wallet app indicating nearby ePaisa enabled outlet that can accept payments.
The cashier will initiate a transaction which will send an OTP, or in-app alert or you just scan a QR code depending on the wallet being used.
After confirming the transaction the money is deducted from wallet and credited to the shopkeeper’s bank account.
Siddharth added,
Our belief is that if you want to digitize India, you have to digitize the point of sale. There are more than 180 million wallets in India as compared to the 20 Mn credit cards in the entire country, but they are mostly used for money transfer or recharges. We believe that real acceptance will come when wallets are accepted offline as well. There’s less friction with mobile wallet payments, where no money exchanges hands. That means better security for brick-and-mortar stores, as they don’t have to hold cash on-site and it also gives consumers a better experience at checkout.
According to Jitendra Gupta, founder and MD of Citrus Pay, “The availability of an option to use Citrus wallet on the ePaisa network will increase acceptance points for the users’ digital wallet. From the merchant’s perspective, real-time payment and settlement in today’s digital age should be the norm, while keeping in mind the security of the consumer’s money. Wallet is not just about discounts and cash-backs but also about the experience – a simple, straightforward, secure, rewarding and smooth payments experience – which is exactly what we at Citrus aim to deliver.”
ePaisa faces competition from other similar service providers such as Mosambee, Mswipe, Ezetap Mobile Solutions and Mahindra Comviva’s payPLUS. However, ePaisa differentiates itself by stating that Ezetap & mSwipe do one part of the payment system, while BillDesk does it from value added services angle. Moreover, FreeCharge & PayBack are addressing loyalty and reward program, but these are all companies doing parts of what ePaisa does. ePaisa is a bundle of all commerce and back-end office needs of a merchant into a single application.
Started in 2012 by Siddharth Arora and Akash Arora, ePaisa is an app-based solution aimed at queue busting, reducing investment in bulky (and ugly) hardware. This mobile tool works with any smartphone or tablet. It doesn’t require new bank account or point of sale (PoS) relationships to be setup, as all card transaction payments are sent to the existing bank account.
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