Mumbai: Snapdeal, India’s leading value-focused online marketplace, has partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to allow buyers to make QR-based digital payments at the time of accepting delivery of their orders.
This facility is aimed especially at new or first-time users who are not comfortable in pre-paying for the goods at the time of purchase.
The customer will be offered the “QR-code payment option” at their doorstep as part of the delivery process. Using links on their delivery app, the delivery executive will generate a UPI-linked QR code for the order amount. The customer will be able to scan the code with any UPI-linked payment app on their phone and pay for their purchase. The customer will be able to confirm the name of the payee and the amount before approving the payment.
The facility will work with all UPI-payment options, including Bhim, Google Pay, Whatsapp Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, and UPI apps from leading private & public sector banks like HDFC, SBI, ICICI, and others.
Given Snapdeal’s strong connection with buyers in non-metro cities, this integration is also aimed at increasing the usage and adoption of UPI-based payments in smaller cities. Apart from the main private & public-sector banks, Snapdeal buyers who bank with cooperative banks (scheduled cooperative banks, district cooperative banks, state cooperative banks, urban cooperative banks) and regional rural banks (RRBs) will also be able to pay via this feature.
This partnership plays upon the complementary strengths of both Snapdeal& NPCI, with a very strong alignment towards a common target audience. For UPI, this presents an opportunity to increase usage in a meaningful way, by offering hassle-free payment across a variety of merchants.
According to Rajnish Wahi, Senior Vice President, Snapdeal, “We are always looking out for additional ways to make the online experience better and more convenient for our customers, especially for those who are starting their online journeys. This integration with NPCI allows our users to time the payment to their comfort levels and also enables our delivery partners to reduce the handling of cash. We also believe that this will expand the adoption of UPI in smaller cities and towns in India.”
Kunal Kalawatia, Chief of Marketing, NPCI said, “We are pleased to be associated with Snapdeal and offer convenient as well as comfortable doorstep payment experience to customers through UPI. We believe this initiative will boost UPI transactions among numerous buyers and provide extra confidence to them to perform digital transactions even though they chose COD as an option. With UPI, it’s a constant endeavor of NPCI to bring together Indian customers on the UPI journey and offer them smart, secured, and hassle-free payment solutions. We are also hopeful with strategic initiatives like these, India is soon going to achieve the goal of digital society”.
The digital pay-on-delivery option reduces the time spent at the doorstep for delivery. The move also helps reduce the amount of cash handled by delivery executives and courier companies, as the amount flows directly from the customer’s bank account to the designated account of the marketplace.
This partnership will enable UPI users to make digital payments at the time of the delivery of their Snapdeal order.
Snapdeal has a wide array of digital payments available on the platform. This includes credit and debit cards, EMI, net banking, e-gift cards, e-wallets, etc. The eCommerce firm also has a large and exciting line-up of payment offers since the beginning of the festive season this year.
