The World has changed extensively within the ultimate decade, with the arrival of Mobile Technology and excessive-pace internet, the buying pattern has been evolved up to a splendid quantity.
In addition to this, humans appreciably adopted the usage of e-wallet application/software for purchasing and different enjoyment redo’s which has fueled the payment marketplace and price gateway enterprise as much as a exceptional volume.
India has seen a gradual change in the Digital Payment space, especially post demonetization and the Covid-19 pandemic; the momentum has been in favor of Digital Payment systems & increased profits for E-wallets. There is a reason why every organization is migrating or adopting the Digital Payment system. Currently, we have 1.1 billion mobile subscribers and more than 160 million wireless broadband users in India. As per RBI (Reserve Bank of India), The daily transactions average at about 100 million now for a volume of Rs 5 trillion, and it is going to surpass 1.5 billion transactions, worth Rs 15 trillion a day by 2025. These statistics prove the importance of this space and it also demands innovation and technological advancement to tap the user base.
Now we can talk about the most critical aspect of the Digital Payment machine, which is the Mobile wallet. It was non-existent a decade in the past, but it has exceeded the use of credit and debit cards and is gradually turning into the de facto general for the virtual charge device.
Defining mobile wallet, it is a digital asset which stores digital cash in the form of a digital wallet and that is why it is called an e-wallet. In modern lingo, we call it a virtual wallet which cannot be destroyed and lost instead only be seen and used when point-of-sale is happening. Users use e-wallets using an e-wallet mobile application, where users can store money for long and for making online and offline payments between the two users viz – merchants, friends, owners, etc.
We have various kinds of e-wallets, various types of mobile wallets are such as open, closed, semi-open and semi-closed, depending on the kind of usage and payments being made.
E-wallets are immensely popular nowadays, as they facilitate powerful and green transactions, in particular for Online marketplaces and e-commerce corporations, that have included e-wallets of their payment gateways as well as shops & business have also opted in to provide accepting payments through the maximum famous e-wallets via setting a unique QR code in their shops and keep.
The end-user can scan those QR codes and pay the shop owners directly and the amount is directly deposited into the shop owner or sellers e-wallet or Bank account. Post demonetization, the Government of India did launch UPI (Unified Payment Interface) which has made the usage of e-wallets even easier, as not the money transfer happens directly from the Bank account instead of just the wallet.
Now as all of this really sounds exciting and the adoption also looks seamless, in-ground reality there are various challenges encountered by the sellers as well as the e-wallet companies. Below we are presenting one such Challenge which should obviously help anyone across the globe who already has an e-wallet or is looking forward to building an e-wallet & looking forward to hiring an e-wallet mobile app development company.
Challenges of Digital Transactions – A case study
Contents
There is a famous quote from James Surowiecki, “Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, allowing us to do things more quickly and efficiently”. Well, that is correct; however, the fact is, development in Technology comes in conjunction with demanding situations and troubles, the equal applies to Digital Payment systems and e-Wallets as well.
As per our research and interactions with the e-wallet providers and the sellers we have jotted down the real-life examples to explain the challenges with the e-Wallets and Digital Payment system, especially in India & has a high possibility of the same issues to be encountered in another part of the world, as the issues are major to do with the human nature and behavior rather than the location of the country.
When we usually go out to have tea or breakfast at regular eateries. Post demonetization, most of the vendors or small shop owners have started accepting online payment, via e-wallets, UPI, and bank transfer, due to cash crunch. That was a kind of forced migration to a cashless economy, however, it proved beneficial for the Vendors themselves, as they did not have to manage the cash, the money was directly transferred to their accounts. Many of the who never had bank accounts got new bank accounts, they also learned how unique QR code works, and how they can get instant notifications of their payments, and how easily they can transfer money to their respective Bank accounts from their wallets.
However, these Vendors are facing a couple of challenges that impact their profits, which hinders the efforts to make this Digital payment system a sure shot success. Those concerns are as below:-
- Vendors or Shop owners are concerned about managing the payments during rush hours. They are afraid that people could take out their phone and act like they were paying and say, “I have paid” and leave without paying at all.
- The vendor must share the QR code which is scanned by the buyer and then they must wait till the payment is confirmed and the vendor gets a message. The SMS often does not come instantly and that creates an awkward situation for both Vendor and Buyer. Notifications are unpredictable and too many delays are defeating their purpose.
- Vendors must wait for the payment notifications, and they can easily lose track of innumerable payment messages. For a shop with a huge number of customers visiting and transacting, you certainly need a confirmation which is beyond ‘show me the screen’.
- Not every Vendor is comfortable with handling Smartphones and possess awareness about the tools and technology. Most of them use feature phones and using e-wallets and UPI is an alien thing for them, hence it is a pain area for them.
- Some buyers do take the screenshot of their previous payments, and they show those screenshots to Vendors as if that was the recent payment. Vendors do not have any concrete mechanism to validate until they get a notification.
- If the Shop owner is not around and the transaction is done by the shop employee, then the employee has to take a picture of the payment screen, in case there is an issue with the transaction, and then there may be a lot of troubles like failed transaction, amount stuck, refund, etc.
Based on our survey and research we were able to figure out the following:-
- Eight out of Ten shop owners were the victim of losing money in one of the above scenarios and experienced fraud transactions.
- On average each shop owner loses at least 500 Rs to 1000 Rs on a daily basis due to such fraudulent activities that contribute to their profit margins to be reduced drastically.
- Six out of Ten Small Shop owners were required to purchase smartphones and in some cases even battery backups or power banks to ensure that they are getting payment notifications when the buyer makes payment.
- Three out of Ten were not even in a position to afford smartphones.
- Five out of Ten shop owners had purchased smartphones on loan to offer digital payment options to their customers.
- Though there was an increase in online payments, the risk of losing money also increased drastically.
So when the same was observed by Paytm, which is the biggest player in the digital transaction space in India. It has launched too many Digital Payment solutions and it has earned enormous popularity due to its out of the box solutions. It was the first company that integrated the Indian Government’s BHIM UPI in its platform as an alternative payment method. IT has also launched a postpaid service, known as Paytm Money that allows users to borrow funds to buy groceries, pay bills, order food, book tickets and pay them within given timelines.
Paytm understood this colossal challenge its customers were facing, and it came up with another path breaking and easy solution. Paytm’s primary focus was towards smoothing the payment process and keeping the concerns in mind, it came up with a new smart device, which is famously known as ‘Soundbox’.
About Sound Box Payment
It is a small speaker with an internal SIM card slot, and it acts as a voice-activated POS (point-of-sale) machine for the retailer/vendor. The primary objective of SoundBox is to alert the Vendor if the previous payment transaction has been completed successfully or not. It reduces the dependency of Vendors over the SMS notification. A buyer can simply scan the QR code and make the payment, the Soundbox will simply announce that “Amount has been received successfully”.
SoundBox comes with a speaker and it is powered by MediaTek’s MT6261 SoC (System-On-chips) that is developed especially for IoT (Internet of Things) devices. It comes with 4G connectivity and it remains connected to the internet to facilitate the online payments on behalf of the vendor. It is an extremely simple device that makes transactions easier.
With the soundbox installed at the shop, the Vendor does not need a smartphone to accept and track the payments. The device is issued to vendors for nominal subscription fees, just like the Paytm card-swiping machines it offers to its premium customers.
Benefits of Sound box
- It offers an Instant Payment declaration with a loud alert sound.
- Facilitate seamless Integration and brief settlement of the payments.
- It can replay the final transaction through the characteristic key.
- It supports all price methods including Paytm Wallet, different Apps with UPI interface and BHIM UPI.
- It offers 24*7 customer support.
- It offers the ability to make the declaration inside the local language.
Technical Specifications of Sound Box
- It is powered by the MediaTek MT6261 SoC.
- It is targeted to be used inside the Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the future.
- It can take a maximum input of 5V at 1.5A.
- It comes without a battery; subsequently the Sound Box ought to be connected to the electricity source all of the time.
- Comes with a Sim card, AC electricity adapter and cable.
Why are such Solutions are Important?
As we’ve already cited above, we are migrating in the direction of a Digital and Cashless Era, wherein all of the transactions may be digital. It is extraordinarily essential to understand that to make any User/Vendor/Retailer believe an e-price or e-pockets system, we want to convince them that their money would be safe with the Digital charge platform and that it is able to be transferred to the financial institution, every time they require it.
Unawareness about the gear and system may want to create an experience of doubt for the stop-customers and it’d preserve humans far from things they do not apprehend. As quickly as they might examine and recognize the functioning and the advantage of the usage of such an e-price and e-wallet system they might conveniently use such mechanisms for commercial enterprise and private requirements.
How to Integrate Sound Box with your Mobile Applications?
We need to remember that SoundBox is an IoT tool and the IoT market is going to reach 7.1 trillion dollars by 2020 in keeping with IDC. Today many companies are excited to increase cell packages which can help or utilize the IoT gadgets to decorate the give up-person enjoy.
There is a new area named as IoT application development, that’s using the market. IoT tool interfaces may be exploited and integrated with the existing e-wallet application with our custom programming interfaces (APIs).
In reference to Voice Recognition Payment devices, APIs fire the charge-associated statistics that triggers the SoundBox to transmit statistics to your utility, acting as a facts interface.
Let us say, if you want to communicate with a SoundBox device, which is indeed a voice-activated POS (point-of-sale) machine that comes with a SIM slot, which helps it to remain connected with the internet all the time, it could be controlled using a mobile e-wallet application. The e-wallet mobile app can communicate with the SoundBox device using the API and other 3rd party tools and can receive and exploit the data it receives from the e-wallet application.
How can TIA help you?
TIA Sound box is a tool that facilitates you get immediate audio or voice notification confirmation in your preferred language on every fee you get hold of through UPI QR code or some other BHIM UPI app. It is a small and transportable speaker on your daily immediate fee signals. Our Talk It All Sound Box comes with many advantages and merchant can ease their payment management smartly with this solution.
Some common advantages of TIA sound box:
- Audio and Display Alert for real time transactions.
- Replays last transaction.
- Announce & Display Daily & Weekly transaction.
- Capable to provide Bulk orders with our own manufacturing plant.
Read more about Sound Box here