Use of cash does not need education or customization. Currency enjoys the advantage of being universally recognized and accepted from time immemorial. It is an advantage that will always remain.
The challenge, therefore, for electronic payments providers is to design products in a manner that creates the same sense of familiarity, trust and longevity. This will require a constantly innovative mindset and yet simplicity and ease at the end of the consumer and merchant so that friction is minimized.
To take into account the diversity of this country on the parameters of language, culture and habits, customization may have to be accompanied with some degree of localization, such as availability of customer service options in local languages and customer-friendly options like the innovative ‘missed call’ service that many NBFCs offer.
Payworld , the largest assisted wallet for Rural India has first began by playing at the periphery of railway ticketing, bill payments, recharges and small remittances have made inroads to claim larger parts of the customer wallet by providing convenient and secure options for small payments and transfers and setting up assisted touch points for cash loading and cash out, acting as banking correspondents, and creating a layer of service providers that has attempted to accommodate this low volume business.
Payworld, which had over 100 million users and one lakh retail touch points across 630 cities and 80,000 villages till the first week of November, has seen an exponential growth in new users mostly from rural and semi-urban areas.
Payworld is also simultaneously educating the merchants and consumers and changing their preference is something that has posed the biggest challenge which as a company there are trying to overcome.
The company has witnessed that offline, person-to-merchant transactions had grown to contribute over 30-35 percent of transactions. Payworld knows the challenges of digital payments for non-tech savvy or unbanked population like ; the inconvenience of remembering log-in credentials, insufficient acceptance, possibility of a technical or human mistake during a transaction and frequently running out of balance are the top reasons for lapsing which makes merchant acceptance critical to drive mass adoption by consumers.
Payworld’s prime focus is to increase merchant base and educating them at the most elementary level so they can adopt cashless way.
Payworld being an assisted wallet ensures that each and every of its merchant unfailing help their customers go the digital way and thereby play a significant role in the of upkeep of the Skill India Program initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Payworld is putting in a lot of efforts and demonetization has indirectly made them take a huge leap into this direction and the trust levels on the digital platforms have gone up.