NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Apps using the newly launched Unified Payments Interface (UPI) are threatening to dislodge the hold mobile wallets currently have on small & medium enterprises (SMEs) and retailers. Platforms like Goodbox, Shoptimize and Nowfloats, which help small ventures take their businesses online, say there’s growing interest among these companies to test the UPI payment method. And those successfully testing them are keen to integrate it into their platforms.

Launched by the government a few months ago, UPI is a platform that allows users to make transactions between their bank account and a third-party bank account instantly through smartphones. The system works with the respective mobile numbers, without the need to know and register the other party’s bank account details. “The UPI platform is quite advanced. You get money in real time. Merchants are all excited about this faster, cheaper method. We have used it ourselves, and the commerce app based on UPI is super easy to use,” says Abey Zachariah, founder of Goodbox, which works with 13,000 SMEs.

Srihari Srinivasan owns a convenience store called Eezykart in HSR Layout in south Bengaluru. He uses the Goodbox platform. He started accepting e-walletsonly three months ago, following demonetisation. He said a lot of custo mers were then asking for payments through Paytm.