Razorpay – Dutch Uncles

The Emerging Segment Of Recurring Payments, Who Is Taking The Biggest Slice?

Aakash Sharma — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 08:30:09 +0000

In recent months, fintech unicorn Razorpay and payment technology giant Mastercard have launched Mandate HQ, a secure interface for recurring payments. This has come after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) put out a directive regarding an electronic authorization processing framework for online transactions to promote the secure adoption of digital payments.

RazorPay and Mastercard have developed advanced solutions to facilitate the processing of recurring payments, an area that has emerged blazingly after the central bank’s intervention in such transactions.

What are recurring payments?

The recurring payment is a payment model in which customers allow merchants to periodically and automatically withdraw funds from their accounts for the goods and services they offer. Recurring payments include bills for utility, cell phones, credit cards, hosting fees, Internet Service Provider (ISP) fees, etc.

Recent RBI rules regarding recurring payments

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has published a framework for processing electronic payment orders in recurring online transactions. Under the new rules, RBI requires AFA (Additional Factor of Authentication) for all recurring transactions involving debit cards, unified payment interface (UPI), credit cards, or other prepaid payment methods for under Rs 5,000 transactions.

Under the new rules, banks must inform customers in advance that recurring payments are due and complete the transaction after customer approval. This rule may apply to monthly subscription fees for several OTT-streaming platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+Hotstar, among others.

Mandate HQ by Razorpay and Mastercard

MandateHQ is a comprehensive platform that helps banks manage the end-to-end mandate lifecycle of orders, including creating, viewing, updating, cancelling, processing and suspending orders and their depreciation. Mandate HQ is a white label product that allows end-users to view and manage the history of all pending orders and all recurring transactions.

In addition, the Mandate HQ platform helps banks activate 24-hour prepaid email, SMS and WhatsApp notifications and provides the end-user with a portal for managing card authorizations.

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Razorpay’s Mandate HQ is an API-based plug-in solution that cuts commission times for any card-issuing bank that wants to allow its customers to make recurring payments.

The Mandate HQ solution can be fully integrated into any bank in 7 days instead of other solutions that generally take several weeks. In addition to its partnership with Mastercard, ReservePay is also working with three banks and is in talks with more than 20 banks to integrate this technology into their existing payment infrastructure.

Industry estimates – what can others learn?

Industry experts estimate that the total market opportunity for recurring payments in India will be between $280 million and $336 million in the coming years. With the integration of the new subscription-based business model, recurring payments have tripled over the past two years with an annual growth rate of 40%.

Industries such as OTT platforms (primarily regional), advertising technology, food technology, health technology and the economy, in general, are the biggest beneficiaries of this change. In general, customers can have multiple guarantees for different transaction prices. Start-ups and young entrepreneurs entering the industry can work in these areas under the central bank’s guidance to benefit a wide range of customers and thus strengthen their business.

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Best Indian Payment Gateways of 2021

Shalmoli Sarkar — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 03:35:04 +0000

The trend of online shopping and preventive measures to keep body contact to a minimum in the pandemic has ushered in a deluge of online payment usage in India. According to RedSeer Consulting, online payments are expected to grow triple by Rs 7092 trillion by 2025 from Rs 2162 trillion in 2019-20. Companies operating in verticals like food, fashion, electronics, furniture, and medicines, etc. are increasingly moving towards expanding their online business which is proliferating the demand for online payment gateways. Here are the top 5 best payment gateways that can be used by businesses:

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According to RedSeer Consulting, online payments are expected to grow triple by Rs 7092 trillion by 2025 from Rs 2162 trillion in 2019-20.

Top 5 Payment Gateways Businesses Must Adopt

Razorpay

Founded in 2014, Razorpay enjoys a user base of 800k and has received unicorn status in October 2020 with a valuation of $1 billion. The USP of this payment gateway is its instant activation and easy integration that can be used by freelancers, small -medium-sized businesses, and large businesses as well. Razorpay’s dashboard provides users with information on real-time data transactions. Razorpay accepts payment through various channels such as credit/debit cards, net banking, UPI, and wallets. Businesses that have built their e-commerce websites on Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce can select Razorpay as the payment gateway. Other advantages of Razorpay include placing a subscription model for recurring payments, sending payment links, payment pages, and avail working capital loans. Razorpay charges 2 percent on Indian debit/credit card, net-banking, UPI and 3% on Diners and Amex Cards, International cards, EMI.

Cashfree

Used by 15000 businesses, Cashfree enjoys the popularity of being the most affordable payment gateway in India. The payment gateway supports credit/debit cards, net banking, and UPI and can accept international payment as well. The feature of ‘Cashgram’ generates a weblink where businesses can send it to their customers to collect payments with ease. There is no setup cost involved in implementing this payment gateway and can be easily configured. Cashfree favours working with government-registered businesses. For Net-banking, Credit and Debit card Cashfree charges 1.75% per transaction, for Pay Later and Cardless EMI it charges 2.5% per transaction. For International cards charges are 3.5% +Rs 7 per transaction.

Paytm

The advertisement jingle on TV ‘Paytm Karo’ has made Paytm synonymous with ‘Go wallet less.’ Paytm supports all domestic credit and debit cards connected to more than 50 banks. Its user-friendliness and ability to support more than 72 international currencies is its USP. It has a recurring billing facility for businesses based on a subscription model. Besides, it allows website payment and multiple currency processing. Paytm charges 0 % for transactions through UPI and charges 11.99 % + GST for transactions through Paytm wallet, Net banking, Paytm Payment bank, and credit card.

Instamojo

Instamojo is an Indian payment gateway that enjoys a loyal customer base of 1 million. Features like simple user interface, supporting more than 100 payment modes, integration mobile, and website, and zero charges for NEFT/RTGS or any other bank transfer make it a preferred payment gateway for businesses. It does not support multi-currency payment. Paytm charges 2% + Rs 3 per transaction happening through debit and credit cards.

Aurus Inc

Aurus Inc provides an array of digital payment solutions to business verticals belonging to QSR and fine dining, specialty Retail, Health and Beauty, Auto and C-store for easy collection of payments online. It receives a total of 6 billion payment interactions annually. Aurus Inc acts as a one-stop platform to handle all merchant transactions irrespective of the channel, sales process, or process. The payment gateway is PCI P2PE certified and ensures secured payments by adhering to stringent compliance. Its Out-of-the-box integration with cutting-edge devices, systems, and providers in the digital payment ecosystem gives merchants the flexibility to enjoy the benefits of in-class technology.

What is in it for small businesses?

India is in the midst of a digital revolution with increasing smartphones and falling data plans. Trends like online shopping and digital payments to minimise contact are the need of the hour in the pandemic that is fuelling the adoption of online payments by businesses.

Payment gateways offer customers convenience and a seamless shopping experience. Apart from enhancing customer experience, small businesses can use payment gateways to save time and reduce excessive costs involved in physical transactions.

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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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Why is Subscription Model Gaining Popularity in India?

Shalmoli Sarkar — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 01:35:04 +0000

The emergence of the subscription model can be dated back to the times when traditional milkmen sold fresh milk by delivering milk directly to the households. Soon, this subscription model became the sole mantra of generating revenue by the OTT platforms Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc., and soon startups from various business verticals such as cosmetics, socks, personal wellness, car rentals, news portals, hospitality are following the suit of the subscription model. The startups and companies’ shift towards subscription-model is attributed to varying customer preferences and expectations that are favouring access to services over the ownership of physical products. . The subscription model benefits both consumers and businesses in multiple ways. In industries where the demand is either for regularity of service or a bouquet of services, a lump sum one-time amount does not serve the purpose. For consumers, subscriptions seem to be more affordable than buying a product or service for single use. It gives customers the power to switch to a different service provider in case they are not satisfied with the product. The subscription model is customer-centric that forges a long-term relationship with a company through smaller and regular payments. It induces recurring business by reducing the friction where a customer has to go back to go through the checkout journey again.

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The subscription model is customer-centric that forges a long-term relationship with a company through smaller and regular payments.

Subscription Model is Beneficial for Startups

Besides, the subscription model, being customer-centric, is beneficial for the startups in various ways. Income from the subscriptions creates a consistent pipeline of cash flow that determines the valuation and from which future revenue generation can be estimated. For a startup or any new business recurring revenue creates a safety net that helps in attracting investors as well. With subscription mode, the management of inventory and supply chain becomes convenient. Startups and businesses, through this model, will have access to the first-party data. The first-party data comprises direct connections with customers and data signals that allow companies to gain consumer insights.

Examples of Business verticals that have implemented a subscription model

Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) socks selling brands such as The Moja Club, Soxy Toes, SockSoho have revolutionised the socks selling in India by giving it a subscription touch. A pair of socks is the only accessory for men that has monotonous colours such as white, grey, blue, and black. With the subscription model, by paying a certain amount customers can get various designs, colours, pop culture quotes, their names, etc. printed on socks to add a style statement to it.

Amid pay cuts, congested roads, lack of ample parking space, irregularities in fuel prices, high interest rates, lack of credit history, and rise in insurance premiums are the reasons people are not considering purchasing cars. Instead of buying a car, the urban young consumer chooses to opt for a subscription. The new trend of car subscription’ is now gaining grounds that makes owning a car hassle-free and easy driving. Vehicle subscription can be defined as a service where the customer pays a recurring amount to use automated vehicles. The car subscription suits perfect for the individuals who have transferable jobs or those who have shifted to a new city for project basis work that will demand their presence for a few months or years. The individual does not have to worry about transporting or owning a car across cities.The pandemic has severely hampered the newspaper circulation in the country that have led the renowned publication houses and brands such as Bennett and Coleman, Mint, The Ken, Inc 42, and other digital news portals to seek refuge under the subscription model for the digital version of the newspapers to revive the sales and stay afloat.

Can Subscription payments from Razorpay help Here?

Razorpay provides a platform for businesses to set up customer subscription plans and manage recurring transactions. In an automated recurring payment, the business owners have the liberty to charge as per a billing model decided by themselves and do not require any intervention from the customer as the process is automated. Using Razorpay subscriptions, we can automatically charge customers on a billing cycle that we can control. The subscriptions on Razorpay’s platform can be easily managed with the benefits of receiving instant notifications on the payment activity, automatically handling invoices for all subscriptions.

Types of Razorpay Subscriptions

Below are the different types of subscription -model services that Razorpay offers:

Recurring on cards and Netbanking

This subscription model allows customers to authorise their netbanking or credit/debit card details at a time and collect payments regularly with ease.

eMandate

eMandate is a digital payment service started by RBI (Reserve Bank of India and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It is an infrastructure for businesses in India to collect recurring payments that eliminate human interference by instructing the banks and other institutions allowing them to debit the mentioned amount from the respective bank account. It works like this- firstly the business owners request for a recurring mandate.

Through the portal or link, the business sends an authorisation request. The customer after receiving the request gives the authorisation through netbanking credentials or debit card details. NPCI sends the request to the issuing bank, which accepts the authorization request and shares the status with NPCI who again shares status with the sponsor bank. This status is shared with Razorpay who informs the business and activates the eMandate subscription.

eMandate is a convenient way for businesses to collect recurring payments such as insurance premiums, SIPs, loan installment collections, etc. Thus, eliminating the reminders and late penalty charges that benefit both customers as well as businesses.

Paper NACH

NACH stands for National Automated Clearing House. Companies earlier offered physical NACH services had to go through a cumbersome 15-30 mandate registration cycle where multiple stakeholders and hops were involved. As the process was manual, the chances of error were also high. There was no error identification mechanism in the process. The applicant who applied for a subscription for its business was informed only when the request for a subscription was rejected.

Let us understand how Razorpay’s NACH process. The customer fills in details such as bank account number, contact information, etc. These details get captured with Razorpay. After the details are captured the business owners get an e-form and a link is generated. This link can be shared via SMS, email, WhatsApp, etc. The customers can download the form, sign it and upload it back. After your customer successfully uploads the mandate, businesses can track the status, debit money, and send responses anytime by logging into the dashboard. Razorpay’s paper NACH process is powered with an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engine, eliminates the probability manual process, and has strong error detection mechanisms.

Aadhar based mandate

In aadhar based eMandates, business owners can set up subscriptions through e-sign and it is the most preferred by the business owners.

How Razorpay Subscriptions Work

The Razorpay subscriptions do not require any intervention from the customer. It is a payment collection system that needs a one-time approval from the customer via an authentication transaction. Below are the steps to understand how a subscription works:

The customer’s approval is solicited before recurring payments are collected. This approval process is just like any normal payment with the 3D Secure authentication step. In the authentication step, it seeks permission from the customer to deduct the amount.

2. Once the authentication transaction is completed, the card is automatically charged at the start of every billing cycle.

3. For every recurring payment, Razorpay automatically generates an invoice that includes customer and subscription details along with your branding. This makes subscriptions an end-to-end solution.

Various Billing Models in Subscription

Razorpay Subscriptions supports three different billing models:

Fixed Schedule and Fixed Amount

Here the customer is charged a fixed amount at fixed intervals of time for a fixed quantity of goods or services. This is done by first creating a plan with a fixed amount and fixed billing frequency.

Fixed Schedule and Fixed Amount plus Add-ons

A fixed amount at fixed intervals of time is charged, but can opt for extra goods or services by paying an extra charge for them. This billing model is created by first creating a plan with a fixed amount and billing frequency and creating a subscription basis for the plan. The extra goods or services availed can be added to the subscription via add-ons.

Fixed Schedule and Variable Amount

This billing system charges the customer at fixed intervals of time according to their usage in the defined time interval. Here, the subscription amount and the quantity of the goods or services are not fixed. The plan in this billing system is created with a fixed amount and charges the customer a variable amount based on their usage.

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The Razorpay subscriptions do not require any intervention from the customer.

Updating subscriptions

After the subscription is live, we can always update it. We can update the following in the subscription plan:

We can update the quantity in the subscription plan that is the number of times the plan amount should be charged to the customer per billing cycle.

We can update the Subscription Start Date. The start date is the date from which we want the updates to take effect for the updated subscription details. The change in the date can be made immediately or at the end of the current billing cycle.

The total number of billing cycles can be updated. This will determine the duration of the subscription.

Cancelling the subscription

We can cancel the subscriptions at anytime during their lifecycle. Once a customer’s subscription is cancelled no invoices will be generated on that subscription and cannot be reactivated. The subscription can be cancelled immediately or at the end of the current billing cycle. It can also be cancelled at various stages namely authenticated, active, or halted. In case the money is to be refunded to a customer after cancelling a subscription, it can be returned in the previous payment on the subscription. Thus, Razopay’s subscription offers a business the flexibility to opt for various subscription plans, billing models, and instant notifications that will aid in the smooth implementation of the subscription model generating a consistent cash flow and increasing customer loyalty. So, without much wait, get started with your Razorpay subscription plans.

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UPI Vs Payment Gateway: Which is Secured?

Shalmoli Sarkar — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 01:35:04 +0000

It was quite alarming for the stakeholders when one of the oldest banks of India, the Bank of Maharashtra could not shield itself from a financial fraud that siphoned off Rs 25 Crores from the bank’s accounts due to a bug found in its UPI application. The bank had procured a UPI solution from a vendor which had a bug that resulted in the money moving out of the sender’s account. The number of transactions in the pandemic through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) skyrocketed upto 2.29 billion in February 2021 as per the data provided by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). But with acceleration in e-commerce shopping and online payments, and lack of robust security infrastructures to contain financial frauds, the incidents of such frauds have reached an all-time high. As payments through UPI gradually gain firm in the small business owners belonging to semi-urban and rural cities of India, the lack of digital literacy and less knowledge of online frauds and scams is allowing scammers to take undue advantage to dupe people of their hard-earned money. Transactions through payment gateway as compared to UPI payments are more secured.

4 financial scams doing rounds that MSMEs need to be aware of

Phishing Scams

Fraudsters in disguise of customers can send the business owners unauthorised payment links through SMS. These fake payment links have a stark resemblance with the original links, without much thinking, they click on the link that directs them to the payment app to select any of the apps for auto-debit. Once we give permission the amounts get debited from the UPI app instantly. Hence, to the business owners, it is advised to never process any transactions through the SMS. Also, by clicking on the payment link, the fraudsters may infect your phone with a virus/malware designed to scoop out the financial details stored in the device.

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The number of transactions in the pandemic through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) skyrocketed upto 2.29 billion in February 2021 as per the data provided by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Fake Helpline numbers and handles on Social media

Users of UPI at times express their resentment on social media handles on UPI about issues related to redeeming offers, availing cashback, money transfers, refunds by sharing a screenshot of their UPI handle. Little do the users know that every social media page that has the word NPCI or BHIM or any bank name is not authentic. Scamsters create such handles to make you reveal your account details. The fraudsters under the pretext of helping and guising as admin of the fake UPI page keep a track of what is being posted on Facebook or Twitter, where they ask to share card details, OTP details. As soon as vital details are shared the money is deducted from the account.

Fake UPI apps

There are any fake UPI apps available on Google Play stores. In 2016, when PM Narendra Modi encouraged to use online payment apps, NPCI received several complaints about duplicate BHIM apps. Some of them had fake names such as Modi Bhim, Bhim Modi App, BHIM Payment-UPI Guide, BHIM Banking guide, Modi ka Bhim, etc. However, these apps were pulled out but business owners who are new to online payments might be unaware of these fake UPI apps.

Alert to transfer requests

Fraudsters posing as customers dupe the business owners by taking advantage of the ‘request money’ feature in UPI apps. They initially happen to show interest in buying a product and try to engage with the seller on a phone call. Due to the lack of knowledge on digital payments they make the seller transfer the money using UPI apps’ ‘request money’ option.

May I help you

This might seem UPI to be having an excellent customer care service. But, scamsters have set up their fake helpline numbers online. When a user seeks help through the number, pretending to be the company’s technician and advising the complainant to download screen sharing apps such as Teamviewer to resolve the issue instantly. Under the pretext of solving the problem, the fraudster with the help of such third-party apps gains full access over the phone to access all financial details. According to a February 2019 press release from NPCI, five cases were reported with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) of fraudsters using these third-party screen-sharing apps to control mobile phones for malicious purposes. With third-party screen sharing apps, fraudsters can get complete access to a user’s card number, CVV code, and initiate financial transactions. Hence, MSMEs must be wary of giving their access to their mobile device to anyone.

How Payment Gateways from Razorpay can Help Here?

A payment gateway has a bank working behind the scenes to issue merchant accounts. The primary function of a payment gateway is to provide a secure money transfer through its link between a website and the bank. Once a customer fills in the payment details on the website the gateway receives them and forwards them to the bank for verification. It is a secured tunnel that connects your bank account to the platform where your money is transferred. Payment gateway is a software that is authorised to conduct an online transaction through various payment modes such as net banking, credit card, debit card, UPI, or other many online wallets.

How a Payment Gateway is secured?

A payment gateway ensures the security of the data in the following manner:

The payment transaction in the payment gateway is carried out through an HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) web address. The S in HTTPS guarantees security. MSMEs should make sure that a padlock symbol in the browser window frame is present whenever you visit a payment site.
It uses the hash function. A hash function is a mathematical function that turns a numerical input value into another compressed numerical value. It is because of the hash function that the system uses a signed request from the business owner for validating the request transaction. The signed request is a secret word that is only known by the business owner and the payment gateway.
The IP ( internet protocol) of the requesting server is verified to identify malicious activity to ensure the security of the payment page result.
The payment gateways are secured with Virtual Payer Authentication (VPA). The VPA implementation under 3-D secure protocol adds a layer of security that allows the online sellers and customers to authenticate with each other with ease.

Benefits of using a payment gateway

A seamless and convenient payment process gives users a better experience. Below are the benefits of using a payment gateway for MSMEs.

PCI-DSS Compliance

Payment gateway is powered with PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliance. The PCI-DSS compliance defines policies and for payment procedure and security. The compliances are ensuring security to store user’s data in the portal or gateway for recurring payments. For example- if a customer is regular to your business, then it can save your bank or card details in your website or app and will remain secured from any cybersecurity threat.

White-Label Wallet

Enables users to extract money from their bank account to the mobile wallet app that can be further used to make payments on various websites or apps.

Fraud Screening Tools

Payment gateways have the advantage of fraud screening tools that minimises the risk of losing information. These tools protect the Card Code Value (CCV), Card Verification Value (CVV), or even the Address Verification Service (AVS) and ensure that there is no fraudulent transaction.

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According to a February 2019 press release from NPCI, five cases were reported with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) of fraudsters using these third-party screen-sharing apps to control mobile phones for malicious purposes.

Why Razorpay’s payment gateway should be chosen by MSMEs

Below are some of the security protocols and processes that power Razorpay’s payment gateway :

TLS (Transport Layer Security ) encryption

The payment gateway from Razorpay uses the highest assurance SSL certificate i.e. EV SSL (Extended Validity SSL) certificate in its website the TLS certificate ensures that the data exchanged between the web server and the browser is secured. Without a TLS certificate, the data exchanged over the internet is unencrypted and is easily available to the scamsters for intercepting.

The PCI-DSS Compliance

Razorpay’s payment gateways follow PCI-DSS compliance which is a set of policies that safeguards sensitive cardholder information for all e-commerce websites and online payment systems. For a payment gateway to be PCI-DSS compliant they have to follow certain directives such as maintaining a secure network for processing payments that involve robust firewalls countering security threats and encryption of all information a user exchanges while checkout through TLS preventing the interception of data when payments are done from user’s system to Razorpay. Razorpay never stores sensitive information like CVV numbers, PINs, etc.

Another directive includes keeping updated with the new PCI-DSS mandates using updated software and spyware to strengthen itself to counter new software vulnerabilities for maximising data protection.

Tokenisation

Tokenisation is the payment gateway that replaces a 16-digit card number with a digital identifier known as a token. Tokenisation ensures the safety of the original data meanwhile allowing the payment gateway to securely access the cardholder data and initiate secure payment. It works like this: Say, if an e-commerce website is hacked and one gets the tokens, it will be immensely difficult for the hacker to retrieve the actual card number from the token. To retrieve the details, any hacker would require the logic for tokenization which is not available publicly.

Fraud Prevention

Besides these mandatory protocols, big data analytics and machine learning in Razorpay’s payment gateways have their fraud and risk prevention systems by diving deeper into customer’s data and analysing patterns which they classify either normal or suspicious transactions with utmost accuracy.

Thus, Razorpay’s payment gateway has all the above-mentioned security processes that will help the MSMEs to accept online payments securely for their e-commerce business. So, without much wait let us begin using the payment gateway from Razorpay.

The post UPI Vs Payment Gateway: Which is Secured? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

How to Sell Online Without a Website

Shalmoli Sarkar — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 01:35:05 +0000

Sushilaben was distraught. With lockdowns announced, her famous Khakhra shop was forced to remain closed, which gave hiccups to her revenue. Sushilaben, initially a homemaker, began her business of selling homegrown Khakras at the age of 40. To insulate her business from further losses, she sought refuge in her new selling channels- Whatsapp groups and Facebook. Yet, her main hindrance remained in collecting online payments in a simplified manner. Sushilaben never thought of having a website, as her shop majorly operated locally. In India instances like Sushilaben are no unique, the small business owners who do not have a website and lack knowledge of online payments will prove to give massive headwinds to their business. Shifting business online which seemed earlier an additional expansion plan became a necessity in the pandemic for the MSME sector. Small businesses in India stared at losses that left them in a precarious position of closing their business permanently. In such testing times, MSMEs pivoting their business online quickly is a near-impossible task. Many MSMEs want to sell online but major investments for website development and less deep tech knowledge for integrating a payment gateway discourages them from doing so. Instead of investing in building a solid, functional website and taking pains to host it all the way to integrate the right payment gateway, MSMEs can accept payments online without having their business’s website or app using payment pages from Razorpay.

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Shifting business online which seemed earlier an additional expansion plan became a necessity in the pandemic for the MSME sector.

What are Razorpay’s Payment Pages

Whether your business has a website or not, the payment pages from Razorpay are designed to accept payments from your consumer. One can effortlessly create a payment page within less set-up time to go live and start accepting payments from your customers from all over the world. The payment pages can accept payments from 100 international currencies that require no coding experience or support. It helps your business with end-to-end payment collection by allowing you to create a payment page without the need of hosting it. We can also link the payment page to the social media page or can send the payment page links to customers.

Features of Razorpay’s payment Pages

List multiple products

Business owners can list any number of products or services that they wish to sell on the payment page, also including images and descriptions for each item that we list.

2. Setting limits on purchasing

To prevent underselling or overselling of inventory the business owners can set limits for the minimum or maximum number of products to be purchased by a customer. NGOs and charitable organizations can fix a minimum amount for the patrons to donate.

3. Rearranging the items

Items that have been purchased recently can be displayed high on the payment page by dragging the input items or fields upward or downward.

4. Collect customer data

From an array of input fields supported by payment pages, business owners can capture customer data. The input fields range from phone number to email to PAN number and PIN code. Business owners can select the appropriate input field to ensure proper validation.

5. Reporting

Small business owners can receive a comprehensive report on each item sold, basis on real-time transactions from Razorpay’s dashboard to help make informed business decisions.

6.Works on Mobile as well

The payment pages are mobile-friendly where customers can pay swiftly by just clicking the button with the freedom of choosing from many payment modes.

7. Can be embedded on the website

If the business owner has a website that is not integrated with any payment gateways, they can embed the payment pages CTA in the website where you prefer the call for action. On a single click, the customer will be taken to the respective payment page.

8. Redirect your customer

We have the autonomy to customize the text on the CTA ( Call to Action) and can also redirect customers to the merchant page. After every payment process, we can also show a custom message to show the payee that the payment was successful.

Use cases where payment pages work wonders

Below are the use cases where payment pages reduce time and cost :

Selling tickets for events: Let us say you are organising a one-day marathon event in your city. But your only hiccup is that you don’t have a website and any means to collect payments online. Creating a website and integrating a payment gateway seems economically unviable and time-consuming for a single-day event. Here, the Razorpay payment pages come to the rescue by giving you the functionality of a webpage that can be customized to suit your brand hosted by someone else but accepts online payments for your event with a custom URL. We can choose the input details in the payment page that we want to collect from the participants such as age, email id, past marathon participation, etc. The payment page can be shared across emails, SMS, and social media pages, etc. It helps you with end-to-end payment collection.
NGOs and charitable organisations: For NGOs and charitable organisations the pandemic was a rugged year for procuring essentials and raising funds for the cause. NGOs with no cost can create a payment page link as the landing page to accept donations from more than 100 international currencies. The payment pages allow contributors to donate through multiple channels such as credit cards, debit cards, wallets, netbanking, and UPI. There are no hidden charges or extra costs for creating a payment page. For NGOs that have a website, they can add a code to the website and start accepting payments, and then with the Razorpay payment button, we can add an integrated checkout with payment gateway on the website and accept donations without any integration or coding efforts.
Payment pages for social media businesses: Business owners who have been sharing their bank account details with the customers to date can create payment pages and share them across Facebook and Instagram. After creating the payment page we can just link the payment page to the social media profile where we can accept payments or send the payment link to your customer. Accepting payments through the payment pages are secured with 100 % PCI DSS compliant and certified solution.

Creating the payment pages on Razorpay

Creating payment pages from Razorpay is a no-brainer. But, before we create below, are some prerequisites.

Firstly, we need to sign up for a Razorpay account.
After logging into Razorpay’s dashboard, fill in the Know Your Customer requirements.
To test the payment pages, Razorpay’s dashboard has test and live modes. The test mode is a replication of Razorpay in a sandbox environment which becomes available as soon as we complete the sign-up process. It allows you to test all aspects of your integration before you go live. The payment page created in the test mode does not go live and after thorough testing of the payment page, we can switch to the live mode and start accepting payments from the customer. Sometimes, payment Buttons created in the test mode do not appear in the live environment, thus one must create a new Payment page on live mode.
Understanding the payment flow

Generic Steps to create payment page

After logging into the Razorpay dashboard, navigate to the payment pages present at the left bottom of the page.

2. On clicking the payment pages, we need to click on ‘create payment page’.

3. It will showcase five payment page template options.

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Accepting payments through the payment pages secured with 100 % PCI DSS compliant and certified solution.

4. After selection of the payment page template, we need to add page details that require both business and payment details section.

In Business details

For business details we need to add a page title which should not be exceeding 40 characters and a brief description for the page, to make the page more alive images and videos can also be added. To make the payment page shareable on social media, we need to click on the option, ‘ Add social media share icons. For extending any assistance add your contact information such as mobile number or email id. Click on add terms & conditions to add terms of business.

In Payment details

To fill in the payment details we need to configure the price fields. The price fields are the price tags of products or services that we intend to sell.

We can configure the price fields in three ways –

Item with Quantity : We should choose this when we want the customer to buy more than one unit of the item. We can also set upper and lower limits of units that a customer can buy.

Opt for this if you want the customer to buy more than one unit of the item. You can set additional parameters for minimum and maximum numbers of units a customer can buy.

Fixed Amount : We choose this amount when we want the customer to buy a single unit.

Customer Decides Amount: This mostly happens in the case of donations if we want the customer to enter the donation amount. We can set additional parameters for the minimum and maximum amount a customer can enter.

Customizing the pay button label

We can customise the pay button label by labelling it as book tickets, pay now, etc.

Configuring the payment receipt

By selecting the automated receipts we can ensure that the customers receive payment receipts via email once they complete the payment.

Configuring the page settings

Choose a custom URL for the page, this is available only when in live mode. Enhance the look of the payment page with a light or dark theme.

Publishing and sharing the payment page

After saving and publishing the payment page, a URL appears that we can copy and share. If we have a website, then we can embed the payment page button on the website, the customers can click on this button to open the payment page and complete the payment. In the pop-up that appears, customize the button text and select the button size and then copy the HTML code to be embedded on your website and select done.

Thus, with the above-mentioned steps get started to accept online payments through payment pages.

The post How to Sell Online Without a Website appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Be it Blog or Website, Monetize them Using Payment Buttons

Shalmoli Sarkar — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 01:35:06 +0000

The pandemic will be remembered as a muddled year for businesses and economies. changed in a fortnight, with the announcement of lockdown many businesses were coerced to shut down for several days. Micro entrepreneurs and small businesses bore the brunt of the pandemic, as they were not equipped enough to go online.

Meanwhile, India’s print media industry too could not insulate itself from the pandemic crisis. With newspaper circulation stalled, there was hardly any revenue generation for a long period of three months that led to layoffs of many journalists and the shutdown of regional newspapers. Renowned media houses such as The Hindu laid off 100 journalists with the closing of its Mumbai edition. Times of India too followed the shutdown suit by closing its Sunday special Times Life.

Grappling through pay cuts and layoff, freelancing jobs for several journalists is appearing to be a glimmer of hope and is also paving the path for a new set of micro-entrepreneurs and gig workers to run individual businesses and work on different projects respectively. The gig economy in India as per ASSOCHAM in January 2020 has estimated that it would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent to $455 billion by 2023.

Monetizing the online presence

With numerous website and blog building tools such as Wix, WordPress, and e-commerce store building tools for example Shopify and Woocommerce at affordable costs, micro-entrepreneurs operating in verticals as psychotherapy, Yoga, freelance writers, content creators, pet food shops, etc are launching their products and services online. However, with the best use of templates, images and designs the work does not end there. The website or the blog site created will be of no use unless we add the business flavour to generate revenue from it. The most challenges an independent business owner counters is to generate sales when any visitor lands up on the site. However, content is abundant around how to generate conversions but monetizing the site, be it a blog site or website through digital payments, is yet a question mark. For new independent businesses, going live with payment gateways similar to e-commerce sites such as Flipkart or Myntra is an arduous task, as it demands technical expertise. One needs to build a complete checkout flow, integrate the payment gateway and buy cloud space to store the customer data which is difficult to achieve in limited time, resources, and a shoestring budget. The process of integrating payment gateway is easy for established business owners or entrepreneurs as they are backed by investments for which they can hire website developers and digital marketing agencies to take care of the entire process on an online platform. Payment buttons here can help the new entrepreneurs to monetize their sites in no time.

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The gig economy in India as per ASSOCHAM in January 2020 has estimated that it would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent to $455 billion by 2023.

Razorpay’s Payment Button

Razorpay has developed a customised payment solution’ Payment Button’. It is a Do-It-Yourself solution that is designed for everyone to accept online payments by adding a payment gateway along with an integrated checkout on the website.

Why Should You Choose Razorpay’s Payment Button?

It is a quick payment solution that can be added to any webpage not requiring integration efforts.
Creation of a payment button in Razorpay does not involve a tech expert.
The payment buttons are mobile-friendly that can be embedded without any coding requirement.
It offers a quick payment solution that suits any business vertical.
The payment button goes live in 5 minutes after embedding.
The payment button can offer more than 100 payment modes including credit/debit cards, netbanking, UPI, wallets and enables international payments.
Payment through Razorpay’s payment buttons offers a smooth experience to the customers as its redirection-less experience reduces drop-off rates on both mobile and desktop.
Razorpay’s intuitive reporting system helps business owners to get detailed insights on each item sold, based on real-time transactions from the dashboard to aid in better business decision making.
We can create any number of payment buttons that we can add to the website along with required details and descriptions for each one of the items.
After payment, Razorpay helps businesses to send automated receipts to customers without any manual intervention and is compatible with website builders and content management tools.

Types of Payment Buttons available on Razorpay

Quick Pay Button: Embedding Quick Pay Button on the websites helps customers to make quick payments for a fixed amount by their preferred online payment method such as card, netbanking, wallet, etc.
Donate Button: Several NGOs and charitable organisations can use this button to accept donations with the pre-decided amount or can allow the customer a ‘Pay -as -you -Like’ option, where they can type the desired amount to pay.

Buy now Button: This payment button is mostly suitable for event organizers, product, or service sellers. This button accepts payments of multiple items with varying quantities.
Custom Button:This is designed for power users with capabilities for different amount types, custom forms, etc. It gives the business the liberty to create, customise and publish payment buttons without any technical knowledge and offering a seamless experience to the customers.

Businesses Which Can Make Use Of Payment Buttons

Below are various business verticals that can use payment buttons to accept payment from customers :

Non-Governmental Organizations(NGO) and Charitable trusts: The payment button for NGOs will prove to be beneficial since the payment button supports more than 100 payment models as well as international payments. Here, NGO can either select a minimum amount that is to be donated or can leave it free for the patrons to enter the amount. After the donation has been successful, the buttons have an automated receipt feature that can send 80G receipt in PDF either by saving time and resources. We can also get donor information such as the PAN number that comes with an inbuilt validation check. NGO should select the ‘Donate Now’ payment button.
Event Organisers: An event organizer that is selling tickets for a particular event. For example, if you are conducting a stand-up comedy event and want to sell tickets online, the event organizers can create a ‘ book ticket or buy now button for a fixed monetary amount to sell tickets. They can also create payment buttons of their choice by using the ‘ custom button’.
Small Businesses: Small businesses such as gift shops, bakeshops, stationery shops, handicraft shops, pottery, pickle, local Kirana shops, private fashion labels can add the payment button ‘ Buy Now’ button to their site. Businesses to avoid overselling or underselling of stock can define demarcations for each item for easy inventory management.
Educational institutes: Schools, colleges, and institutes can embed the “Collect Fees’ payment button in the websites to collect fees online from students.
Individuals: Individuals such as digital content creators, clinics, or a freelance writer can monetize their blog sites and websites using payment buttons.

Creating the payment buttons on Razorpay

To understand how to create payment buttons for your blog or website, we need to have the below requisites:

Create and sign up for a Razorpay account.
Login into the Razorpay dashboard to complete the Know Your Customer requirements.
To test the payment button, Razorpay’s dashboard has test and live modes. The test mode is a replication of Razorpay in a sandbox environment which becomes available as soon as we complete the sign-up process. It allows you to test all aspects of your integration before you go live. The payment button created in the test mode does not go live and after thorough testing of the payment button, we can switch to the live mode and start accepting payments from the customer. Sometimes, payment Buttons created in the test mode do not appear in the live environment, hence one must create a new Payment Button on live mode.
Understanding the payment flow

Adding the Payment Buttons

Go to the Razorpay dashboard to select the payment button option that appears in the left column. On clicking it, you will be able to see the ‘Create Payment Button’ that appears on the right side of the screen.

On clicking the ‘Create Payment Button’ it will display options of four button templates -Quick Pay, Buy Now, Donations and custom.

Choose the button that you want to select for your business.

Fill in the button details where you can select the fixed amount that is needed to pay and a button label which is a text on button such as – Pay now, Buy me a coffee now, etc.

For the ‘buy now’ payment button, business owners get a separate section for setting the amount details for different products. For example- I own a flowers and gift shop that sells bouquets. It also has a package that sells chocolates with bouquets which is optional and chargeable if selected. Here, we can set two amount details for bouquets individually and another for chocolates under the label button ‘ Add Chocolate’. Also, to manage oversell or undersell, we can control how much quantity one can order by selecting the quantity limit in the advanced options.

After adding the button details configure the information such as email id and contact that must be entered by the donor for payment. NGOs can add one input field of PAN number.

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To test the payment button, Razorpay’s dashboard has test and live modes. The test mode is a replication of Razorpay in a sandbox environment which becomes available as soon as we complete the sign-up process.

Select a Button Theme

Businesses can select a button appearance from the below available themes at Razorpay-

Razorpay Dark
Razorpay Light
Razorpay Outline
Brand Color

Review the details entered in the button, amount, and customer details. To make changes one can navigate to the button details, amount details, and customer details to make changes, and click ‘ Create Button’.
Upon completion of these steps, the button code in HTML appears. Copy this code and add it to your webpage.

Post Payment actions

After payment is successfully made, we can send them a payment confirmation using:

An automated payment receipt, for NGOs they can enable the 80-G payments option.
Showing them a custom message
Redirecting them to another page showing that payment is done.

Thus, small businesses can monetize their blog sites or websites using payment buttons offering a hassle-free payment experience to customers. So, without much ado, get started with payment buttons.

The post Be it Blog or Website, Monetize them Using Payment Buttons appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

If You Are a Start-Up, How to Select the Best Payment Gateway?

Tanisha Achrekar — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 00:35:05 +0000

When you are running an e-commerce business, one of the main decisions you have to make is how you want to receive payments from your customers. With having numerous payment gateway options, choosing the best one has now become more difficult than ever. When a customer is purchasing something from your website, you want their experience to be as smooth as possible.

What do I look for while selecting a payment gateway?

The first thing you need to consider while choosing the payment options is knowing your audience and its needs. Here are few pointers to look for when you are choosing a payment gateway for your startup:

Security

Security is a dealbreaker when it comes to receiving money from your consumers as a new business. You want to ensure them that their transaction is safe and secure or they might hesitate and not order at all. The PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is the highest level in card data protection achieved by a gateway. To ensure the gateway you choose has one, should be the top priority. Over the past several years, people have had trust issues with online transactions. If your gateway does not seem secure enough, you may lose your orders. Security is a non-negotiable thing to look for while exploring payment options.

Fee structure

If you are a startup, you may feel hesitant to pay an initial setup fee as you are yet to make money. You can evaluate your options and choose the ones that may have lower or no set-up fees. Have a look at the use license and the storage that is being offered in the amount you are paying. Also, consider the Annual Maintenance Charges (AMC) while choosing a payment option. If you have sufficient funds, you can also choose multiple payment gateways. Multiple payment options enhance the trust of consumers to a greater extent.

Seamless and friendly experience

The checkout experience hugely impacts the purchases made on your website and the retention rate of your consumers. If your customer struggles or has a poor experience while making payment on your website, they are unlikely to make online payments next time. The payment gateway should be hassle-free and friendly so your consumers can just breeze through it. The more swift and smooth transactions, the happier your customers.

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A payment gateway is more of an investment than an expense.

How does it impact my business?

Since choosing the right payment gateway plays a vital role in streamlining your business and is a factor closely connected to the customers, there’s a lot in it for you!

Importance of secured payment gateway

Small startups are known for their ability to connect with customers’ needs and demands directly. Whether you are working for new clients or retaining the existing ones, their expectations are needed to meet with caution. An absence of a secured payment gateway is directly associated with losing customers’ trust.

See it as an investment, not an expense

When you are choosing a payment gateway for your business, keep in mind that it is an investment and not an expense. As in the long run, it will enhance your customer experience and retain more clients. The perception of your brand is directly impacted by the gateway you choose, so invest wisely!

The post If You Are a Start-Up, How to Select the Best Payment Gateway? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

How to Accept Payments Without a Hassle on Social Media

Shalmoli Sarkar — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 01:35:03 +0000

It will not be an exaggeration to say that scarcity of essential products in the pandemic due to market closures in lockdown led people to purchase more from e-commerce. A study from Bain says that the e-commerce Gross Merchandise Value in India reached $30 billion in 2020. Small and mid-sized startups, apart from selling products on e-commerce biggies like Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket, and Grofers, have leaped to leverage new channels to offer shoppers a customized and interactive shopping experience. Social commerce – that is selling products through social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat was nascent till date is gaining prominence. Since many social media platforms and content creators are going the vernacular way to deliver content, social commerce can firmly place its hold among millennials and in tier-II and Tier-III cities of India.

Social commerce: A new e-commerce

During the lockdown, many people lost access to essential goods overnight. Many local retailers and store owners sought refuge in social commerce platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram to stay afloat with their businesses. The fact that people will trust local and small-medium merchants for product delivery made their debut in online business using social commerce. Besides trust, the duration of time spent on social media by the Indians has catalysed more sellers to ramp up their businesses on social media platforms. According to a Bain & Company report, Indians spend an average of over three hours per day online, of which around two hours consists of messaging, social media networking and watching videos. The study also showcases that India’s social commerce sector, which is a $1.5 to $2 billion Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) market today, has the potential to grow to $16 to $20 billion in just five years, increasing to $60 to $70 billion in revenue by 2030.

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According to a Bain & Company report, Indians spend an average of over three hours per day online, of which around two hours consists of messaging, social media networking and watching videos.

Rural India is responding to social commerce

The deluge of affordable smartphones and cheaper data plans is causing rural India to explore themselves online or more of a hybrid model where the buying is assisted by someone they trust. Assisted buying has led to many homegrown social commerce apps like Meesho, Bulbul TV, City Mall, Mall91, Meri Saheli app to foray into their businesses in the low tier cities of India. These social commerce apps have provided a means of livelihood for many housewives turned businesswoman, micro-entrepreneurs and resellers who can sell products through social media like WhatsApp and Facebook, thus able to build their online presence with no costs involved and increase the customer base. A report from Bain & Company states that small sellers and merchants form 85 percent of all social commerce players that have the potential to empower over 40 million small businesses and entrepreneurs across India.

The skepticism towards online shopping

Despite a bright future that lies ahead for social commerce in India, a report from Bain says that only 100 million out of a universe of 700 million internet users transact online. The main deterrent of online shoppers from going with online transactions is the fear whether the money will reach the concerned person’s account or bank accounts getting hacked. There is a visible lack of trust. The customers from tier -II and tier-III cities are comfortable with smartphones and the internet but find it unconvincing to fulfill payments online due to their apprehensions about digital privacy and complicated user interface. For online sellers this becomes a roadblock for running a business smoothly. Imagine, for receiving payments, the seller needs to share his bank account details mentioning the IFSC code, branch number, and account number; that is a tedious and manual job. With this, there is no guarantee for instant payment or might cause customer drop-off. We require a convenient payment solution here that solicits the customer for instant payment and does not allow the customer to have room for second thoughts about buying, and close sales quickly. Small business owners should create a seamless shopping experience by enabling their businesses with fast, safe, and secured payment solutions through payment links.

How Payment links from Razorpay can help here

An online visitor might want to reconsider their purchase decision if we present them our bank account details on social media platforms. The Razorpay payment links enables businesses to accept digital payments from any social media channel in a hassle-free and secured manner. One can create a payment link from the Razorpay dashboard or through the ePOS application on mobile. Once the link is created, we can copy the link to share it with the customers to accept social media payments.

For instance let us say, we have an online store on Facebook and a prospective buyer is seeking answers to her queries through direct messages, after she is convinced, we can share the Razorpay payment link for the payment. Razorpay payment links can be used to accept payments online by businesses that do not own a website. Once a customer receives the payment link, they get various payment options such as debit card, credit card, UPI, netbanking, and wallets.

Features of the Razorpay Payment links

The payment links are secured with PCI DSS compliance.
Business owners will receive automated notification through powerful webhooks every time a customer makes payment using payment link.
The payment links from Razorpay are easily shareable that can further be personalised to enhance customer’s shopping experience.
No complex integrations, coding, or design knowledge to begin with.
Has facilities like chatbot payments and cash-on-delivery
Enables businesses to offer 100+ payment options to their customers
Receives insights, data and reports about the payment status on Razorpay’s dashboard.
The appearance of the payment links can be customised.
There is no additional charge required to create links except a standard gateway fee of 2% per transaction.

Creating the Payment Links for accepting Social media payments

The payment links for social media on Razorpay can be generated through the Razorpay dashboard and ePOS app

Link Creation through Razorpay Dashboard

Creating payment links through the Razorpay dashboard is a no-brainer, one needs to create an account on Razorpay, and click on ‘ Payment Links’. There we enter details such as the amount to solicit from the customer, customer name, for what the payment is, etc., and click to create the payment link which can be shared. As soon as the customers make payments the owner will get notification of the same.

2.Creating payment link through the ePOS app

If we want to generate payment links from mobile, then we need to download Razorpay’s ePOS app whereby by clicking on ‘Create link’ we need to fill in the details such as the amount to be collected, phone and description of the transaction. After the link is generated it can be shared on any platform from mobile.

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A study from Bain says that the e-commerce Gross Merchandise Value in India had reached $30 billion in 2020.

Sharing payment links on Facebook

Business owners can create business accounts on Facebook in two ways. One is through creating a Facebook business account that carries product photos and catalogues for buyers to choose from and another is a Facebook marketplace, which is a free service where customers can explore, buy and sell products all under one platform. Facebook does not have its delivery or payment systems to offer. It is a platform where sellers and prospects can interact. The challenge for the sellers is that there is no checkout page or payment system created by Facebook. Once a purchasing decision has been made by the customer, the seller needs to share his bank account details that delay the process making it complicated and giving the buyer the room to rethink about its buying decision, which is certainly disappointing. Therefore, payment links make a seller’s life easier by which he/she can easily share the payment link over chats or conversations. Sellers, once they receive confirmed orders over direct messages, can share the Razorpay payment link with or without message. The customer can click on the link and complete his/her social media shopping in no time after which sellers can process the orders, post the receipt of payment.

Sharing payment links on Instagram

Instagram has transformed itself from a photo and video sharing platform to a business platform for cosmetics, apparel and jewellery. To enable ease of doing business on Instagram, it has introduced many plugins. As per a study from Deutsche Bank, it is estimated that ventures on Instagram to be a global market worth $10 billion by 2021. Sellers on Instagram can sell their products in two ways – Instagram business account, which is similar to Facebook page where ventures can showcase their product pictures and via Shop feature. The Shop feature is a new tab on Instagram which upon clicking we get a product tag showing the name and price details of the product.

While the customer clicks on the ‘Shop’ feature, it redirects the customer to the business website to place the order and make the payment. Sometimes if the customer is visiting the website for the first time and the website demands to create an account, it might be a bummer since no customer wants to face the ordeal of sitting and creating an account while using the phone. Besides the ordeal, customers on Instagram seem uncomfortable with social media payments with excuses such as redirection, net banking servers not working, and UPI linking issues. Razorpay’s payment links come to the rescue for Instagram businesses with customised links, multiple payment options, and instant notifications. The payment links can be sent directly over direct messages (DMs) when a customer is placing an order. It can be used to remind customers of the remaining payments, reducing bad debts and missed payments.

In the ‘Shop’ feature, by using ‘DM ME’ (Direct Message Me) sticker we can receive orders and share payment links. Using DM ME stickers can reduce the chances of customers abandoning cart items, with payments done instantly.

Accept Payments from Email and SMS

Besides, Instagram and Facebook the payment links can be shared over e-mails and SMS. Razorpay has an in-built feature where the system can directly send the customer SMS or e-mails payment links. For new businesses whose websites are not fully equipped to handle too many payment requests, might give customers a ‘failed payment’ experience. In such cases, sending payment links through SMS or emails is a saviour that offers a smooth payment experience to the customer.

Sending Payment Links on Twitter, LinkedIn

Payment links created from Razorpay’s ePOS app allows instant sharing on platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp or Reddit based on the requirements. If you are planning to conduct a skill workshop, courses or any seminar then sharing of payment links on professional platforms such as LinkedIn will garner more participation.

Payment links create a frictionless and secured shopping experience for the customers at the checkout. It increases the business efficiency of those who currently do not have a website or a mobile storefront. Hence, without giving much thought, start creating payment links on Razorpay to receive online payments.

The post How to Accept Payments Without a Hassle on Social Media appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

How Razorpay and Mastercard will help MSMEs to build digital footprints?

Smruthi Krishnan — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 06:35:04 +0000

Razorpay and Mastercard have partnered up to help several micro, small and medium scale enterprises also known as MSMEs across India to transform their operations to the digital landscape as times change and the business paradigm shifts into a cashless market. Mastercard and Razorpay launched a partnership which puts together Razorpay’s payment processing capabilities along with Mastercard’s trusted and secure digital banking solutions and card services.

Criteria for MSMEs

Based on the criteria of Investment in Plant & Machinery/equipment and Annual Turnover, MSMEs were classified in July 2020 as follows:

Micro Enterprises: Not more than Rs 1 crore investment and Annual Turnover not more than Rs. 5 crores
Small Enterprises: Not more than Rs.10 crore investment and Annual Turnover not more than Rs. 50 crores
Medium Enterprises: Not more than Rs.50 crore investment and Annual Turnover not more than Rs. 250 crores

Shift in Retail Payments Scenario

The pandemic led to a lot of changes in the retail payments of India as more and more people shifted to cashless transactions. Prior to the pandemic, nearly 90 percent of retail payments in India were transacted via cash. However, post pandemic there has been a rapid shift towards digital technologies and a change in the way consumers shop and pay. The end result is a potential expansion of digital payments in India which has opened up the gates for merchants, acquirers and Fintech companies to invest in such directions.

As the future in the payments industry seems likely to become more digital, SMEs and start-ups need to establish a stronghold in digitalising their companies to increase consumer base and meet the demand for secure, convenient and touch-free transactions. As MSMEs often do not have the means to make such transformations, Mastercard and Razorpay’s partnership will work towards helping MSMEs make the necessary changes.

Partnership between Razorpay and Mastercard

The Fintech Revolution is bound to alter the payment and banking experience of consumers and businesses. The market is evolving to cater to different sets of consumers and businesses. Mastercard being the global payments and technology leader will further induce digitalisation and help small scale businesses in adopting industry-leading technologies that help ensure efficiency.

At the same time, recently turned Unicorn, Razorpay will help merchants across India become digitally and technologically equipped providing them safe, secure ways to make payments. The two companies will also work together on making recurring payments more accessible to businesses and consumers. They will create consistent onboarding solutions for bill payments, digital content platforms and other subscription services.

We hope that the partnership will be a successful one and will help create a positive transformation in the digital payments space whilst uplifting the small and medium businesses in reaching the level of digitalisation that the future economy requires.

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