Digital wallet provider Paytm is looking to set up
30,000 to 50,000 retail outlets where its 2.4 crore customers can load cash on
their digital wallet. The company is also looking to enrol retailers - mostly
kirana stores - as merchants for accepting digital payments. To encourage users
to hold funds in its prepaid account, the company said it has linked its wallet
to the banking system to enable cash withdrawals from it.
"For India to move from a cash economy to a cashless one, we need to have a number of places where cash can be converted into electronic form," Amit Lakhotia, VP-payments at Paytm. He said while physical outlets would involve higher costs (compared to electronic bank transfers), it would increase adoption and help transform Paytm into a ubiquitous payments platform. "Until now, the user was able to do wallet-to-wallet transfers. Now, he will be able to transfer funds to the bank as well. Although we want customers to use the wallet for online payments, we expect this facility to boost customer confidence," he said.
The other advantage is that once Paytm is linked to their bank accounts, customers will find it easier to fund their accounts. As of now, customers fund their accounts through credit cards, debit cards and net banking. But funding accounts using a card involves a transaction cost paid to the card issuer.
"For India to move from a cash economy to a cashless one, we need to have a number of places where cash can be converted into electronic form," Amit Lakhotia, VP-payments at Paytm. He said while physical outlets would involve higher costs (compared to electronic bank transfers), it would increase adoption and help transform Paytm into a ubiquitous payments platform. "Until now, the user was able to do wallet-to-wallet transfers. Now, he will be able to transfer funds to the bank as well. Although we want customers to use the wallet for online payments, we expect this facility to boost customer confidence," he said.
The other advantage is that once Paytm is linked to their bank accounts, customers will find it easier to fund their accounts. As of now, customers fund their accounts through credit cards, debit cards and net banking. But funding accounts using a card involves a transaction cost paid to the card issuer.
0 comments: