Digital Payment – Dutch Uncles

How Mattress Brands should Market Themselves?

Shalmoli Sarkar — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 12:32:02 +0000

Rewinding the time machine to the early and mid-2000s Kurl-On, India’s then sole player in the mattress industry made a commercial that threw a question about having a good night’s sleep to its audience. The commercial portrayed individuals belonging to all age groups yawning at the odd hours of the day.

Cut, to 2022 today’s mattress is more than about a good night’s sleep and yawning during the daytime. The mattress industry largely dominated by the unorganised players, which use cotton material as a filler is witnessing the entry of organised players and is poised to grow at a CAGR of 10 percent to become a market worth $2.5 billion as per a Redseer report. As disposable incomes rise, and people become more considerate about health they are focussing more on the comfort and functionality of the product.

Pandemic has led to sleeping disorders

With the corporate rat race becoming fierce, the sleep cycle of Indians already went disturbed which further aggravated the outbreak of the virus. The anxieties surrounding health, finances, a slump in business, and reduced incomes topped with abrupt lifestyle changes like going to bed late brought irregularities in people’s sleeping patterns. Many complained of having insomnia, sleeping hours getting reduced, and difficulty in falling asleep. The mattress brands in line with the changing times should include innovative marketing strategies to gain traction. Mattresses are no longer considered consumer durables but they indicate the quality of life. Here is how they can do it.

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The mattress industry largely dominated by the unorganised players, which use cotton material as a filler is witnessing the entry of organised players and is poised to grow at a CAGR of 10 percent to become a market worth $2.5 billion as per a Redseer report.

Marketing strategies for mattress brands

An easy buying experience: Purchasing a mattress online will not be welcomed by Indian consumers, since buying one requires a measurement of the bed that is to be matched with the mattress size. But, mattress company Casper solved this hassle by easing the process of buying a mattress online without worrying about the quality and measurements. It developed several unboxing videos and made easy guides, manuals, and graphics that helped buyers easily place orders on the website. An easy buying experience becomes the topic of positive word of mouth for the customers. It also offered a 100-night free return policy — no questions asked.

Sell comfort and sound sleep: Few people are aware or unconcerned that insufficient sleep deteriorates health. Most people are unaware of the number of hours required for a sound sleep. Therefore, the marketing campaign should contain educative content that strikes the correct pain points of their consumers by educating people about a night of sound sleep. It should look like your business has the solution to the problem of sleep.
Expanding the product line: For a mattress brand, the lifetime customer value is low since the mattress is a product that people will buy once in several years. There are no repeat and multiple orders from the same customer. To increase the order value, the company must develop products other than mattresses that will help sleep better. Products such as flight cushion pillows, aroma candles for sleep, sleep oils, and sleep yoga should be added to the product range directing people to people to sleep better.

Social media: Mattress brands can effectively leverage the social media user base to promote their offerings by engaging the audience in a two- way communication through quizzes, contests, and memes. Advertising on social media platforms will widen its reach as the outbreak of the pandemic has increased the screen time of Indians on social media.

B2B Market- a territory untapped for mattress brands

Apart from going B2C, the new age mattress brands should consider targeting the B2B customers as the demand for construction in both residential and institutions is on a steep growth curve in India. It should target more hotels, strike deals with builders, educational institute hostels, dormitories, etc.

The post How Mattress Brands should Market Themselves? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

UPI 123 Pay : Democratising Retail Payments for Small Merchants

Shalmoli Sarkar — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 12:39:28 +0000

For financial inclusion of the feature phone users in India, RBI has recently launched UPI for the non-smartphone users in India to further deepen and democratise the digital payment network, especially in rural areas. Although India is on the cusp of the smartphone revolution but has a sizeable number of people who use feature phones. According to Statista’s reports, out of a total of 118 crore mobile users in India, around 44 crore people yet use feature phones and 74 crores have a smartphone with them in the country. The UPI 123 Pay will enable users of the lower economic strata of our society to effectively use digital payment who cannot afford smartphones to access UPI.

People from rural India are aware of UPI payments but want to stick to feature phones, also if they own a smartphone as a second device they do not want to keep it solely for making digital payments.

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According to Statista’s reports, out of a total of 118 crore mobile users in India, around 44 crore people yet use feature phones and 74 crores have a smartphone with them in the country.

How does UPI 123 Pay work?

UPI 123 Pay differs from standard UPI which allows users to integrate their feature phones with bank accounts to pay digitally without internet connectivity. This payment system does not require any QR scan code to pay.

Digital payments through UPI 123 Pay is a three-step process of the call, choose and pay. Through its voice-based system or IVR, users need to call 080 4516 3666 a number provided by NPCI, select their preferred language, tap the ‘1’ key on the phone to transfer money, confirm the bank name through voice-based command, again tap the ‘1’ key to transfer the amount, enter recipient’s mobile number and the amount followed by the UPI PIN to authorise the transfer. The UPI PIN can be set up on the call through debit card details before transferring the amount.

There are three more ways to transfer payment:

The second mode of payment is through an app-based channel where app functionality is offered in a feature phone.
The third mode of payment is through sound proximity where the technology is based on sound waves to enable contact and networking to make contactless payments.
The fourth mode of payment can happen through a missed call where users can send a missed call and will get back a call to authenticate by inputting a UPI pin and carrying out the payments.

The central bank has also launched a 24*7 helpline for digital payments – DigiSaathi

How will UPI 123 Pay benefit small businesses?

For small merchants in India, the launch of UPI 123 Pay is poised to become a gamechanger, since the payment settlement time through cheques takes up to 48 hours, and if there are bank holidays, festival holidays, or weekends the settlement period might extend up to 6 days. Hence, managing cash becomes cumbersome.

Also, this feature in non-smartphones will allow the SME business to flourish, explore more new markets, channels that took a backseat for not using digital payments. The UPI 123 Pay makes the facilities under UPI now accessible to the lower rungs of the society which were so far excluded from the digital payment landscape.

The post UPI 123 Pay : Democratising Retail Payments for Small Merchants appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Fintech and Grocery: A Profitable Partnership During The Pandemic

Anju Nambiar — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 12:35:08 +0000

If you aren’t aware of the grocery market in India, BigBasket’s name can instantly remind you of the potential of this sector. BigBasket is currently one of the biggest players in the e-Grocery space. But over the years, many more hyperlocal firms have emerged like Jio Mart, Spar, Amazon Fresh, etc. Speaking of hyperlocal grocery apps, there’s also Grofers, India’s e-Grocery unicorn.

Most of these names were offline supermarkets and hypermarkets which have quickly pivoted to an online presence during the pandemic. Digital Transactions have allowed them to quickly go online. It’s not just these big names, but the small brick-and mortar Kirana shops were able to survive and revive during the pandemic due to Fintech products and services.

Grocery challenges and needs during the pandemic

For a very long time, householders loved to physically walk into a store and pick up fresh fruits, vegetables, pulses, grains, and bakery products. But the pandemic has made this impossibile. Now both homemakers and working professionals simply place monthly orders for groceries on e-Grocery apps depending on who is offering the most attractive discounts and prices.

Fintech and Grocery partnership

The fintech and e-Grocery partnership has been long-standing. Even before the pandemic, digital wallets like Citrus, PayUMoney, MobiKwik, and Paytm were partnered with prominent e-Grocery companies like Grofers. They were mutually making profits by offering cashbacks, discounts, and reward points. But since the pandemic, their partnership has taken on a whole new level.

Kirana store partnership for essential items delivery

Hundreds and thousands of Kirana shops which were providing fresh grocery items had to suddenly go online and compete with e-Grocery giants. Fintech firms stepped up to help them in their digital transformation by providing digital payments services. Fintech companies have been launching apps and deploying POS systems for them.

Now, even the smallest Kirana shops in India have the PhonePe QR codes on their counters. Paytm also provides all-in-one QR codes for local shops and merchants to accept payments via Paytm wallet, Rupay cards, and UPI based payment apps. The local mom-and-pop stores even started accepting orders on WhatsApp and providing e-payment options through mobile wallets, apps, and cards.

A convenient payment model – BNPL

Buy Now Pay Later is facilitating robust partnerships between the fintech and grocery industry. The BNPL model works by extending a small-ticket loan to an e-Grocery shopper placing orders and making purchases for monthly or daily groceries online. The loans are instantly accrued either on the fintech app (the grocery platform redirects to the BNPL app).

In most cases, the BNPL service is integrated as a payment method during checkout in the e-Grocery platform. The BNPL model facilitates instant payments and bite-sized credit which are accessed by the shopper alongside the purchase. BNPL pays for your order free of interest but levies a minor late charge per day if you miss the repayment date.

For example, while checking out on BigBasket, you can choose the BNPL option on Simpl (A BNPL service). You will get redirected to Simpl’s login page and upon logging in, Simpl will pay for your grocery order and add the charge to your account which you can pay at a later date.

An instant real-time payment system

e-Grocery online shoppers can choose the UPI payment option while placing orders on smartphone apps. UPI is available as a payment option on RBI approved smartphones successfully verified and linked to one or multiple UPI accounts like Google Pay, Bhim UPI, PhonePe, etc. The UPI payment method is reflected on the checkout page where customers can choose their preferred UPI app. The amount will get directly debited from the customer’s bank account linked to their UPI ID. Grofers for instance, had earlier rolled out UPI for android devices.

UPI penetration has seeped into every household making this the most popular payment mode on e-grocery apps. UPI providers like Google Pay, Phone Pe, Paytm have partnered with grocery firms. In Google Pay, you can purchase daily essential items. You can view Google Pay’s partnerships with hyperlocal small businesses in the grocery sector in the ‘Business’ section on their app. Even Paytm features small businesses in the e-grocery segment on their ‘Paytm Mall’ section where they offer attractive discounts and deals for everyday essentials.

How this fintech startup took offline grocery online

An example of a partnership between fintech and e-Grocery has been PayNearby’s initiative to take offline grocery stores online. PayNearby is a fintech start-up which offers a hyperlocal delivery and purchase app. They onboarded more than 2 lakh pan-India Kirana shops on their hyperlocal discovery and purchase app to enable customers to order a wide range of products from their local Kirana stores.

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Noteworthy start-ups in India offering conversational AI and voice based B2B solutions.

What’s in it for me?

The voice tech industry has been evolving and Voice AI is seeing applications across numerous key industries including healthcare, retail, hospitality, customer service, etc. The Asian market is seeing high adoption of voice AI solutions for commercial applications. The reason why the Asian market is a hotbed for voice start-ups is due to the sheer diversity of languages, accents, and dialects. There’s huge potential for B2B voice tech start-ups to acquire clients in the government, across enterprises, as well as investor interest.

Conversational AI tools have high demand among enterprise contact centres since they are easing the process of customer communication and subsequently enhancing the customer experience. There’s also great demand for chat and voice-based bots that cater to multiple different languages among enterprise contact centres. Ever since the revelation that massive new markets open up by targeting regional languages in India, every industry is in a race to develop multilingual products. Whether its vernacular gaming apps, social media, or speech services, the whole of Indian population can become your consumer base by being inclusive of local languages.

The post Fintech and Grocery: A Profitable Partnership During The Pandemic appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

How Can Businesses Reconcile Using Virtual Bank Accounts?

Shalmoli Sarkar — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 01:30:04 +0000

The apprehensions of going out are arising due to the rapid spread of the infection. Businesses are trying their best to reduce visits to banks, skipping the paperwork, and adapt to virtual banking. For years, businesses in India have been collecting large payments from bank transfers. The collection of payment is easy, but what seems to be cumbersome for the businesses is the reconciliation process since it is subjected to human error that increases administrative costs.

What are Virtual Bank Accounts?

Virtual bank accounts that have no physical existence, are temporary where transactions happen on behalf of a real, physical account. Similar to creating an account on Facebook or Instagram, a virtual bank account can be created in seconds. Reconciling payments in a virtual bank account happens in real-time conserving time and money. The operating and maintenance costs of a virtual account are lower than a physical bank account. A business can open multiple virtual bank accounts that are difficult in a physical bank account.

Types of Virtual Account

Virtual accounts are of two types

Account created on top of a nodal or escrow account

An escrow account is an account where funds are held in trust whilst two or more parties complete a transaction. Virtual accounts created on nodal or escrow are temporary. Here the funds remain only for a short duration till transferred to its payee. In this when we make payment, the money goes to a nodal/escrow account through a payment gateway for ex-PayU, Razorpay. These payment gateways have various virtual accounts. Let us understand this with an example- Suppose a business owner purchases goods from a wholesaler using transaction medium NEFT/RTGS or IMPS, the funds are transferred in a virtual account given by the payment gateway that stays there temporarily until it reaches the wholesaler in a settlement.

Account created on top of a business or current account

In this, the virtual accounts are made based on a business or current account where a banking institution is involved in setting up virtual accounts. When a customer transacts through the virtual account, the business owner will identify the payer’s details through the virtual account number. Businesses can deduce customer information and reconcile payments with ease, also it can get an overview of transactions happening across departments. Virtual accounts are beneficial for educational institutions to easily manage student fees. With every student being assigned a virtual account number that can be created based on roll number and batch year, the institute can e-collect fees via bank accounts and use the account number to track where the payment has come from.

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Virtual bank accounts that have no physical existence, are temporary where transactions happen on behalf of a real, physical account.

Benefits to a Business for using a Virtual Bank account

Automated Payment reconciliation

For businesses that involve thousands of transactions on a day-to-day basis, payment reconciliation can be a daunting task. For instance, let us take an e-commerce business that receives payments from various sources such as payment gateways, direct bank transfers, wallet payments, and transactions funded by loans. In such cases, where a virtual bank account is absent, the company would have deployed a finance executive for the task of reconciling with the actual funds received in the bank accounts, which is a tedious task.

Reduced Expenditure

Small businesses spend approximately 2-3 percent per transaction on payment gateways. Considering the volume of the transaction the business receives per day the collective amount of spending becomes an expensive affair. Instead of spending a small percentage of the transaction amount, businesses can pay a fixed cost for each payment processed. This benefit while dealing with high ticket transactions.

Improved Customer Experience

Customers for digital transactions want the process to be smooth and hassle-free. They expect a confirmation from the payee side. Customer experience can be enhanced by organising the cash flow and financial management. We should not be giving the customers doubt about the successful payment transaction.

How Razorpay’s Smart Collect Can Help Create Virtual Bank Account

Razorpay’s Smart Collect, one can generate virtual bank accounts and virtual payment addresses (UPI IDs) on-demand and share the details with customers to accept payments through NEFT, RTGS, IMPS, and UPI. The virtual bank accounts and UPI IDs are linked with the bank account that the business owner has registered with Razorpay.

Since a new virtual bank account or UPI ID can be created for each customer, businesses easily track payments made by payers. Razorpay sends notifications of the payments made to any of the accounts or UPI IDs and also handles the complexity of reconciling these payments on the owners’ behalf.

Reasons to choose Razorpay Smart Collect

Below are the reasons why businesses should implement Smart Collect over other e-collect options:

Instantly create virtual bank account: We can generate virtual bank accounts and virtual UPI IDs in no-time assigned to individual customers in real-time via Razorpay Dashboard and APIs (Application Programme Interface)
Zero Costs: There is zero cost involved to create customised virtual bank accounts and UPI IDs bearing your company or brand’s name as a prefix.
Multi-Bank Support: We can create customised account numbers on multiple banks within a single integration.
Auto-Refund: It can instantly refund any payment made to wrong and deactivated accounts.
Payment from Multiple payment modes: Virtual bank accounts created from Razopay’s smart collect can accept payments through NEFT, RTGS, IMPS, and UPI.
Third-Party Validation: It accepts payment-only accounts that are KYC (Know Your Customer) verified.
Real-time notifications: Receive real-time notifications on payments with Webhooks.
Personalisation: Create custom UPI IDs to match your business needs and branding.

How Smart Collect enables accepting payments.

Single, large one-time payments

Smart Collect enables the customer to collect a single, large one-time payment from a customer (preferably via NEFT, RTGS, IMPS or UPI. We can create a virtual bank account or UPI ID and share the generated account details (account number and IFSC) or UPI ID with the customer. When the customer makes the payment to this account or UPI ID, Razorpay sends notifications so that the account can be closed.

Regular payments of large volume

For payments of large volume where we need to send customers regular invoices, a virtual bank account or UPI ID for them can be created to share the details where the customer can add the bank account as a beneficiary on their preferred netbanking portal and transfer the money using NEFT, RTGS or IMPS. The customer can add a UPI ID on their UPI payment service provider app such as Google Pay and transfer the money using UPI. Razorpay notifies you every time a payment is made towards the account, thus simplifying the reconciliation process.

Campaign or event-based payment

Accepting payments from multiple sources for a multitude of campaigns or events is possible through Smart Collect to create a virtual bank account or UPI ID for each event or campaign and share details accordingly. The payment is made for each event through any of these accounts or UPI ID, Razorpay sends alerts of the account or UPI ID used to do the payment, thus eliminating the need to identify which campaign or event payment was made for.

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Razorpay’s Smart Collect, one can generate virtual bank accounts and virtual payment addresses (UPI IDs) on-demand and share the details with customers to accept payments through NEFT, RTGS, IMPS, and UPI.

How Does Smart Collect Work?

Sign up for a Razorpay Account.
Create virtual bank accounts or virtual UPI IDs tagged to the customer.
Share account details (such as account number, IFSC, and Name) or UPI ID with the customer.
Customers add essential details like adding the bank account as a beneficiary on their preferred net banking portal and transferring the money using NEFT, RTGS, or IMPS. If using UPI apps then the customer adds the UPI ID on their UPI payment service provider app, such as Google Pay, and transfers the money using UPI.
Payment deposited in these virtual accounts or UPI ID is settled into the business’s bank account linked with Razorpay.

What is in it for the businesses?

Thus, creating a virtual bank offers a seamless payment to the customers and gives businesses the flexibility to businesses. With lockdowns and the effects of pandemic persisting, the future of payments will be dominated by digital mode, thus businesses must pivot to virtual bank accounts for convenient reconciliation. So, without much wait, start using smart collect to create virtual bank accounts now.

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