Hassle-free retail payments

Imagine a situation where you go to a store and buy things and on paying, earn points that help you get to shop for other things for free! Well you don’t have to imagine that anymore, as it has turned into a reality. Various banks are tying up with retailers to offer points on the usage of their cards while paying at these stores.  On paying, you earn points, which you can redeem and get gifts from a catalogue full of options available.

Retailers are tying up with various companies providing easy payment solutions. These payment solutions also bring to you various other benefits.  At the festive time, people wish to buy new things for the house, so these options would help to make the purchases easier.

Payment options

A customer today has wide-ranging options to make his/her shopping experience less cumbersome. The options available are the use of credit cards, debit cards, online gateways, special advantage cards and so on.  Though convenient, online payment gateways are a major concern as there is a fear of the cards being misused by hackers. A lot of cases came to light which created fear for customers. But now online traders have made provisions to make the online shopping experience a lot safer. The various options available for customers are as follows:

I-mint: This is an ecosystem of business partners who have come together to form a rewards based loyalty-marketing network. Unlike other loyalty programs, with I-mint, members can earn points on their spends across a network of brand partners, both national and local. These points can be redeemed (exchanged) for rewards. 

PayMate: A wireless transactions platform provider, it is the first-of-its-kind mobile payment service in India.  It is a unique platform, which allows customers and merchants to transact wirelessly, using their existing instruments and protocols that do not require any downloads, or data connectivity. It allows merchants to accept payments without a regular point of sale device, by just using an entry-level mobile handset.

HomeShop18: India’s first 24-hour home shopping channel from the Network18 Group, HomeShop18 is a trustworthy virtual retail platform. There are multiple options like Internet Banking with 19 Banks, ITZ Cash Cards, Mobile Payments – Zip Cash, Cash on Delivery and Cash before delivery, that are available for a customer shopping at HomeShop 18.

@Home: The country’s premier and pioneering mega home store chain from the Nilkamal Group provides convenient investment options through collaborations with ICICI and HDFC to offer easy loans with interesting finance options. Payments may be effected within a span of 3/6/9 months with interest-free EMIs. @Home also helps provide personal loans at zero per cent interest rates for a period ranging from 12 to 18 months. 

Future Bazaar: The online shopping site partnered by Big Bazaar, brings forth payment options like netbanking, mobile payments, cheque/DD and phone (IVR). For ensuring safety of online transactions, Mr Sankarson Banerjee, CEO, Future Bazaar tells, “We use multiple methods like MasterCard Secure and Verified by Visa, filters to highlight risky transactions, risk management software and manual inspection. Manual verification of potentially high-risk transactions, velocity checks, purchase pattern deviance and address and identity verification (AVS) are also done.”

Advantage shopping

The biggest advantage that these cards boast of is ‘convenience’. Convenience while shopping is of utmost important to a shopper today. The growing network and associations in the retail sector are further simplifying shopping. Mr Ajay Adiseshann, MD & Founder, PayMate says, “PayMate’s rapidly growing merchant network already includes over 3,000 online merchants, 10,000 retail stores and over 150 utilities across India. This means you could effectively use your mobile to pay for your shopping and restaurant bills, online purchases, movie and flight tickets, utility bill payments, pre-paid mobile recharge, etc. PayMate is essentially an operator and handset agnostic service, which ensures that each of the 350 million mobile phone users can opt for this service. Also, PayMate has partnered with over a dozen banks (StanC, ABN, CorpBank to name a few) to offer its mobile payment service to their bank account holders.”  While Mr Vijay Bobba, CEO, Loyalty Solutions & Research Limited (LSRL) says, “I-mint launched with six preferred partners - Airtel, Air India, ICICI Bank, HPCL, Lifestyle and Makmytrip.com in 2006, today I-mint has more than 2500 partners and affiliated merchants and this network is growing.” Ms Sandra Daniels, General Manager, Marketing, @Home says, “Payment options are definitely very helpful- people can pick up a high ticket item now, as they can opt to pay according to their convenience. It plays a great role especially in the kind of format stores we are in.” Now the affordability level of people has also increased with the variable options they have access to.

Shopper’s delight

The introduction of various payment options is beneficial to retailers, as easy payment options means more sales, since people can now afford to buy things they couldn’t have thought of purchasing earlier because of their price tags. Customers are also most definitely very happy to get better and easier payment options especially in today’s time when they have so much to do. Mr Adiseshann says, “Although it is early days, we have already received an extremely enthusiastic response and repeat customers for our services. The number of merchants who have partnered with the program has also crossed the 2,000 figure, with the expected merchant base to reach 5,000 in FY 2008-09. Hundreds of I-mint members are redeeming points daily and members have already redeemed crores of points.” These figures clearly point towards the success rate of these solutions among people. From a retailer’s perspective Ms Daniels says, “I think the concept is really picking up, consumers who cannot buy outright have options. We are targeting the young lot, where people have just gotten married and are setting up their home. Till now it was not possible for everyone to purchase a living or a bedroom for Rs 3 lakh in one go but now it is possible with the EMI scheme. Also, we have a bigger market now, thanks to the payment options.” The introduction of payment options is not only beneficial to the customers, but also to the retailers as it helps them to expand their consumer base. The plus point of being provided with maximum convenience while shopping would surely draw the customer back for his/her subsequent purchase.

Future

Retailers should learn from such payment options and introduce more convenient and inviting options for their customers. Mr Malhotra tells, “Very soon, payment transactions or convenience angles are going to be expanded because you are going to be able to pay through mobile phones or even through your remote control on the television itself. So there are going to be new mechanisms that will come in but I guess they are still about six months to one year away.” Mr Adiseshann articulates, “With 25 crore mobile users in India, it is inevitable that more and more transactions will move on to the mobile. The future looks very promising.” Mr Bobba says, “In India, globalisation with rising incomes has brought about a sea-change in the buying habits of the people that has prompted credit card issuers, retail stores, automobile manufacturers, airlines, etc. to start “Loyalty Programs” in order to retain their share of loyal customers. However, with increasing competition, organisations are hard pressed to create value for consumers yet ensure that “bottom lines” are stable. Developing and managing a successful loyalty program requires investment not only in technology and infrastructure, but extensive marketing efforts based on consumer buying behaviour, demographics, etc.” Mr Banerjee says, “We are still innovating with India-centric payment methods. A large number of Indians who show inclination to purchase do not have or find convenient the standard credit card/cheque/ DD methods, so we are seeing a very high usage of mobile-based payments. More innovation is expected, and I expect India to lead the world in this field.” Expectations are many, but options still very limited. However, those options that are available are definitely a relief in today’s time, along with being less time consuming and more user friendly.

In the time to come, we should see the introduction of many more payment gateways, further amplifying the magnitude of new age shopping benefits, making the shopping experience a memorable one for the consumer. Also, the introduction of payment solutions will give greater impetus to retail growth, while at the same time the growth of the retail sector will see the introduction of more payment options.