Renowned digital firm Paytm has expanded the scope of its consumer lending product Paytm Postpaid to offline retail and Kirana stores.
Through the service, Users will be more dependent on digital payment and less dependent on the cash payment monthly household expenses.- The company said in a statement.
Kirana’s and neighborhood stores had remained functional during the harshest phase of the COVID-19 lockdowns, pushing many technology firms to look at innovating products to tap this segment.
Payment firms including PhonePe and Google Pay allowed users to check for operational stores on their platforms in the lockdown. Recently, Mastercard partnered with Axis Bank to launch a ‘SoftPOS’ solution that allows offline merchants to use their smartphones as a point of sale device.
Digital payments platform Paytm has reworked its lending product Postpaid with an enhanced credit limit of Rs 20,000-100,000 which is being rolled out to 40 lakh consumer in the first phase across 5-7 lakh merchant locations, including Kirana stores and popular online and offline retail points. It is issuing the credit through two NBFCs– Clix Capital and Arth Impact. In its old avatar, Postpaid had a user base of about 5 lakh users, the company said.
Paytm’s ‘Postpaid’ service can be used to buy groceries, milk, and other essentials from neighborhood Kirana stores and at retail destinations as well, including Reliance Fresh, Haldiram, Apollo Pharmacy, Croma, Shoppers Stop, among others. Paytm Postpaid is available to limited customers of Paytm as if now. It plans to add 4 million customers to this service.
It has also extended the service to various bill payments facilities available on Paytm, shopping on Paytm Mal, and for payments at various online apps including Domino’s, Tata Sky, Pepperfry, HungerBox, Patanjali, Spencer’s, among others.
Paytm isn’t the only payment platform betting big on its credit line service.
In April, Amazon India through its payment arm, Amazon Pay, had launched ‘Amazon Pay Later’, a virtual line of credit to eligible customers shopping on Amazon.in and partnered with digital lending startup Capital Float and Karur Vysya Bank for this offering.
“Paytm Postpaid is our mission to provide access to credit to every Paytm user…We are excited to expand this service for payments at Kirana and online stores that play an important role in the whole neighborhood and online shopping experience. We will keep expanding the offering to include more and more Paytm users,” said Amit Nayyar, president at Paytm.
