To help the government in its drive of curtailing black money, mobile payment and commerce platform Paytm, today updated its app to launch India’s first APP POS allowing all small and medium merchants to accept all card payments including Rupay, Visa, MasterCard and Maestro.
With the Paytm app any merchant can transact up to INR 50,000 monthly by self-declaring himself as a businessman.
While addressing the media during launch, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO, Paytm, said: “We are on a mission to democratise payments and empower even the smallest merchants to be able to accept credit and debit card payments from their customers. We are very proud that we are able to contribute to the digitisation of our economy.”
How It Works
It can be used in four simple steps:
Under ‘Accept Payments’ icon on the new updated app, small shopkeepers and businesses can declare their details and give bank account details to start receiving payments instantly. This entire process will not take more than 5 minutes for users.
For users who want an increased limit, the solution is to sign up as a full-time merchant. By doing so, users can ensure that there are no limits to their transactions.
Another development of note is that no fees will be charged from merchants up to December 31, 2016 after self-declaration.
When asked about the security of these transactions, Vijay said, “As far as security is concerned, none of the details of any customer’s bank accounts or card details will ever be saved with the merchant.”
Demonetisation Effects On Paytm
Currently registering over an average of 5 Mn transactions worth with an annualised GMV of $4.3 Bn (INR 30,000 Cr). Paytm is expecting 15 Mn app PoS merchants by November end. It also expects to add 15 Lakh merchants by the end of this week.
Moreover, since demonetisation on November 8, 2016, the company’s monthly spend has gone up 3x for the month. With this launch, it is introducing 0% fee for Rupay, Visa, Master, Maestro debit cards and a 2% fee will be charged on payment through credit cards.
Sector Overview
Currently, there are only 1.4 Mn PoS terminals across the country to serve over 750 Mn Indian consumers who have debit/credit cards. Only 3.5% per cent of all retail outlets in the country accept cards with near zero penetration in the mass retail segment which makes up more than 90% of all retail in India.
With its assertive focus on mobile payments, Paytm is aiming to inch closer to its aim of making cashless transactions a way of life by developing alternate solutions to address this challenge.
