E-payments jump in small towns, cities

Digital payments are moving beyond the metros, and electronic payment firms are positioning themselves for the change. “In the past five months, with people staying indoors, the demand for online payments grew by 40% in tier-II and -III cities. Earlier, consumers from a lot of these tier-II and -III cities would only order essentials online, but are now demonstrating high adoption for non-essential purchases like bill payments, video streaming subscriptions and even dating and matrimony services,” said Harshil Mathur, CEO and co-founder, Razorpay, an online payment gateway provider to businesses. Paytm Payments Bank has earmarked ₹100 crore to promote its point-of-sale device, Paytm Soundbox, in tier-II and -III regions, apart from introducing digital ledgers for merchant partners and a product to help small enterprises make bulk payments. “We’ve seen much higher propensity to use digital payment methods in tier-II cities and beyond. BharatPe has seen a 30-35% jump in transaction value on the platform in these areas post lockdown,” said Suhail Sameer, group president, BharatPe.