MxMIndia

Tag: UPI

  • The campaign has bee created by Ogilvy Mumbai

    NPCI launches third Edition of UPI campaign

    By Our Staff

     

    The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched the third edition of its UPI Safety Awareness campaign. Titled ‘UPI Chalega’, it has been initiatied in collaboration with key players in the payments ecosystem.

     

    Said Praveena Rai, Chief Operating Officer, NPCI: “We at NPCI are thrilled to unveil the third edition of our popular ‘UPI Chalega’ campaign. This dedicated initiative, developed in collaboration with key stakeholders in the payments ecosystem, aims to educate users about the seamless adoption of digital payments using UPI. Through this campaign, we strive to instill confidence in users, empowering them to make secure and hassle-free transactions with UPI and experience the true potential of this transformative payment platform.”

     

    Added Sukesh Nayak – Chief Creative Officer – Ogilvy India: “This time when we decided to take the already popular ‘UPI Chalega’ campaign forward we zeroed in on a simple approach. We put Mrs. Rao, the mouthpiece that we have created, bang in the middle of a family wedding. She introduces the versatility of UPI through three situations in the wedding and shows how UPI can be deployed for different kinds of payments. From transferring the money for shagun to giving shagun to musicians during the baarat or activating UPI for non-stop automatic payments. Mrs. Rao interjects and saves the day in her characteristic style with a dash of humor and a refrain that builds the fact that UPI Chalega, in any situation.”

     

     

  • India's digital public infrastructure will take another world-beating leap forward thanks to the ONDC, writes Ashoke Agarrwal

    Happy Birthday, ONDC! Aren’t you on a roll?!

     

     

    By Ashoke Agarrwal

     

    Ashoke AgarrwalIndia is proud of the digital stack it has created with Aadhar and UPI, which is bringing more of India’s informal economy into the formal financial channels. In addition, the digital stack allowed India to launch a very successful formally certified Covid vaccination programme at all levels of the socio-economic strategy—the digital stack in the public health and e-government sectors is in the works.

     

    Even based on the above achievement, India’s public digital infrastructure is genuinely world-class.

     

    Add the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to it, and India’s digital public infrastructure will take another world-beating leap forward.

     

    ONDC is a Section 8 (non-profit) company launched a year ago as an initiative of the government but funded by non-government means and managed by an independent Board.

     

    ONDC’s launch was a low-key affair, and its progress went mostly unnoticed over most of the year. But as it celebrated its birthday this April, it is emerging as the paradigm-shifting concept it is.

     

    The impetus for ONDC came because of the profile of the e-commerce sector in India as it has emerged in India compared to its overall retail industry.

     

    1.2 crore (12 million) of Kiranas (hyperlocal neighborhood provision stores) account for 80% of India’s retail sector. However, 90% of the Kiranas are in the unorganised sector and digitally excluded. Moreover, 4.25 crore (42.5 million) of India’s medium and micro enterprises (MSMEs) are not part of the digital revolution. Only 20% of internet users are online shoppers at the shopper end.

     

    This is the chief reason for the low penetration of e-commerce in India. The GMV of e-commerce in India in 2020 was Rs 2.85 lakh crore (Rs 2.85 trillion, USD 38 billion in nominal terms) which adds up to just 4.3% of the total retail sales as compared to China at 25%, South Korea at 26% and the UK at 23%.

     

    An alternative before the decision-makers were to let private e-commerce integrated platforms like Amazon and Flipkart drive the growth of e-commerce. Such an option would leave the e-commerce market to those with the capital to make the significant investments an integrated platform requires. Moreover, dependence on integrated platforms would lead to exclusion and discretionary behaviour, which will likely leave much of India’s Kirana and MSME sector out in the cold. Another reason why integrated e-commerce platforms undercut both sellers and buyers is that the data and credibility that accumulates, which by all rights should be the property of the buyer or the seller, is appropriated by the platform. In that way, an integrated platform dams value and prevents it from flowing across the entire ecosystem.

     

    The solution was to build an open network for e-commerce that is akin to the open networks like Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) that drive the e-mail ecosystem, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that underpins the web and our own UPI that creates an open network payments ecosystem.

     

    ONDC’s design of an open network for e-commerce is an exercise in disaggregation. ONDC provides the plumbing and the basic rules to buyer-side Apps and seller-side Apps, along with service providers like logistics, technology, and other service providers like analytics to freely interact with each other.

     

    So, if a buyer through a buyer App searches for a particular product type, the ONDC network would list products from all the seller Apps. Once the buyer chooses a specific seller, he can choose from various delivery service providers. The ONDC platform has no single owner, and all the entities – buyers, sellers, and service providers – are equals and are owners of all the data they generate and can use it within the constraints of privacy rules. ONDC is an innovative breakthrough in making a community-owned e-commerce infrastructure that allows the flow of value across the community in stark contrast to the hogging of value by integrated platforms owned by a single entity.

     

    This design can bring India’s vast semi-organized and unorganized sectors into the low-friction e-commerce world. Hence, it has the potential to add many percentage points to India’s GDP growth.

     

    However, from design to delivery is a long process which needs catalysts. During the first few months, one wondered where the triggers would come from. Over the past few months, the contours of the ONDC community have emerged. HUL and ITC became part of the ecosystem. ONDC offers them a readymade platform for “e-commerce” their distribution to the millions of Kiranas they deal with. It also allows them to strengthen their trade relationship by helping Kiranas become e-commerce players in their neighborhood. After its divorce from Walmart, Phone Pe announced its initiative, “Pincode”. Pincode will be a hyperlocal commerce App that connects local stores to neighboring consumers. At the backend, they will enable its partner stores and Kiranas to become e-commerce ready. Another promising avenue that ONDC illustrates is a ride-hailing App called Namma Yatri that offers three-wheeler rides in Bangalore with zero commission charges to buyers and sellers. In a few months, 45000 auto drivers on the App and half a million users have used it. What is Namma Yatri’s business model? It all falls into place when you realise that the Auto Driver’s Union owns the App.

     

    Today, the ONDC has 26000 merchants and 27 lakhs products on its network. It recently extended its categories of products from food and groceries to beauty, fashion, and electronics. Its logistics provider network can serve 90% of pin codes in India. The transaction volume is still low – at 600 a day- but the signs of being on a hockey stick path are all there.

     

    Recently Amazon announced plans to join ONDC as a logistics provider and with SmartCommerce, an AWS-powered suite of SaaS products that will enable MSMEs to board the ONDC network. T Koshy, the Chairman of ONDC, welcomed the giant and, in a subtle dig, opined that he hopes they will soon bring their buyer and sales platforms to ONDC! Or was Mr Koshy taking the micky to Amazon? Way to go, Mr Koshy!

     

    As the ONDC network matures, it will open new vistas in hyperlocal and MSME marketing, branding and advertising services. The marketing and advertising services industry must figure out innovative structures and systems to serve this demand. If the ONDC universe takes 5% of the total retail cake a decade later, it will be Rs 5 trillion market. As a result, spending on marketing advisory, analytics, martech, adtech, branding and creative services can be as high as 6 % of the total sales, a Rs 30,000 crore market mainly in fees and production costs. A significant share of this market will go to agencies and consultancies that jump in today to grasp the dynamics of the ONDC system as it develops.

     

    In sum, ONDC will be the next giant digital leap India makes and could open a global market for one more Indian concept and service. So, let’s wish it luck and Godspeed.

     

  • When many of the wants became needs, writes Vikas Mehta

    Pandemic: Not the driver of change but the change accelerator

     

     

    With apologies to none at all

    Vikas MehtaBy Vikas Mehta

     

    With the turn of the year, there was a splurge of articles on trends, what awaits us in 2023 and of course life post-pandemic. Trends were being captured and changes were being highlighted. A lot of debate on how life has changed for good and bad post-pandemic.

    So, I reflected on these changes, tried to relate it to my own life and read some researched articles.

    My conclusions however differ than the most. I don’t think there was much change. What though did happen was that a lot of change that had already started, accelerated. Let me explain with a few trends that are being hailed as change due to the pandemic.

     

    Digital payment: From Wallets to UPI: The UPI phenomena picked up immediately after demonetisation. Wallets, which was what was the first new age Digital Payment method, quickly gave way to UPI. While it grew as it eschewed the perennial problem of cash exchanges including small change, the pandemic accelerated it considerably. Let’s also not forget that UPI payment needs bank accounts and the opening of millions of jandhan accounts enabled even a streetcart hawker to open an account and get a UPI link. And while we talk about the role of jandhan accounts let’s not forget to give due credit to the 4G revolution and the availability of cheaper smart phones in promoting UPI payment. The timing of pandemic was the catalyst which got all these elements together and UPI payments have since ballooned exponentially reaching 782 crore transactions estimated at Rs 12.82 lakh crore in December 2022.

     

    Online shopping: From novelty to necessity: The miracle of shopping from home had entered our lives more than a decade ago. And the convenience of card payments followed by UPI made online shopping catch on and also achieve penetration in smaller towns. What the pandemic did was to make it a habit. So, when it was not safe to be in a shop or any crowded place online delivery became a preferred mode of shopping. And even the neighbourhood kirana caught on to it. No, every kirana store did not rush to put up a website but they used WhatsApp to communicate availability of the merchandising and whatever offers and promotions were on. These kirana shops facilitated delivery by getting a hired help or even the regular staff, whose workload had decreased due to less footfalls, to do home delivery. So, the concept of online shopping became more acceptable, and more user friendly. But let’s not ignore that there was a huge class of consumers like the government employees who did not suffer a salary cut or loss of employment and whose savings during the pandemic went up as their spending avenues like travel or shopping during holidays got curtailed. As a result, this type of consumer not only picked up the nuances of online shopping but embraced both, the technology and the offers that came along with it. The boom was therefore accelerated. And let’s be sure it has also slowed down. The same consumers are now rushing offline to experience the rush of shopping.

     

    WFH: From Work to Personal Life. Video conferencing and apps like Zoom were not just in place but they were being used by corporates pre pandemic. The pandemic made them verbs. Zoom, Meet, Facetime etc crossed the threshold of corporate world and became household names. Birthdays, anniversaries, even prayer meetings went online. Housewife groups, student groups, educational institutes, understood to use video conferencing as a mean to not just work from home but to also socialize, do part time work and peddle their interests into small business. Again, here the timing was important. Broadband connections were already being rolled out giving faster internet speeds and affordable prices, which the whole family could use. Suddenly everyone, not just working professionals realized that one need not spend time travelling to work or even to meet someone socially. The need to safeguard their health made an individual realise that what was considered non-negotiable like travelling to work, physical meeting with customers had an alternative. And this available also gave the individuals to indulge in new habits.

     

    Reels: From a passive receiver to an active creator. Software combined with smartphones and apps like Tik Tok had already whetted the appetite of the youngster to indulge in expressing themselves through videos. The pandemic gave the youngsters time to explore various technologies and software. The allure of fame and instant recognition added to it. Extra time in hand allowed the youngsters to indulge in their creative language and it also helped ignite a deeper connect with technology. Technology moved from an exclusive domain to a more generic domain. It also fuelled more liberal arts interest in areas like film making, music and liberal arts. Tik Tok had already shown the way. Pandemic fueled it to much greater heights

     

    OTT: Primetime slots to personal primetimes. Time in hand, coupled with more savings, enabled consumer segments like government employees, software engineers etc buying OTT subscriptions. Anyways, movie theatres were shut. TV serials had stopped production so new episodes were not available. These consumers spread their net wide by dipping into the old inventory of OTT channels. Plus, they also started looking at other language programmes which had subtitles. And then, they started taking more than one subscription. As a result the OTT channels which already had good inventory took off. It was not just films or serials it also applied to old sports footage of cricket and international football. It was a win0win situation for both the consumers and the channels. As the consumers opened their wallets the channels started investing in new films or programmes. Pandemic was the rocket fuel for the OTT channels.

     

    Education: From home tutions to online tutions: Forget the role of edutech companies, private tutions, which seem to be a staple for every middle class Indian child were not only a financial burden but also meant parents having to spend time picking up and dropping their children for tutions. So, when online tutions was tried out by some enterprising teachers, the trend caught on. Even now, I hear of one to one online tutions which involves student getting slots at an unearthly hour of 5:30 am or 6 am. But that is manageable as it involves no travel or getting ready.

     

    Tourism: From global to local. Local tourism, a trend that had started around a few years back blossomed during the pandemic. Many youngsters in small towns and even metros had started exploring and then organising local tours which featured forgotten heritage, architecture, natural spots and local cuisine. When the lockdown relaxations started, long distance tourism was still a no go but these local tours picked up. Coupled with the fact that these were mostly walking, and gave an opportunity to get away from the confines of homes, I have seen these flourish and thrive almost everywhere.

     

    Social Media: From gossip to extra income. While social media has fueled enough gossip, innuendos and fake news it has also been used to whet the appetite of work from home housewives or youngsters who channeled their hobbies like cooking or knitting or even worked for social commerce sites like Meesho to earn an extra buck. Even now I come across some students who use Instagram or whatsapp to make some money baking cakes and goodies during festival season. Again, the pandemic enabled these people to use the time available to monetise their hobbies. 

    On a personal level, I saw and experienced some of these explosions. Before the pandemic I would be using Zoom for some business meetings, so as a family we were happy with 4G data plans or using wifi hot spots. But with both me and my spouse working online and my daughter into online schooling, an unlimited data plan backed by higher speeds for video consumption meant that we opted for two broadband plans with the second one as a backup. Online shopping for even daily needs like milk and bread became a habit. My bank statement transactions doubled and tripled due to the increased use of UPI. DTH connection was pruned down to some sports and news channels and Netflix, Sony LIV, Disney Hotstar, Amazon Prime became staple entertainment medium. Zoom became the default verb for any family gathering across countries and continents.

    And when the pandemic struck my mother-in-law in Mumbai, we did tripartite online medical consultation twice daily. The chemist near her house would be sent a list of medicines and nutrients by WhatsApp, his delivery person would place it at the doorstep and we would make UPI payments. Fruits and groceries followed a similar pattern. Even for her food, a tiffin person in her neighbourhood was employed. And finally, a healthcare worker was contacted who physically moved in to tend to her.

    The point to be noted is that many of the abovementioned habits were accelerated due to the pandemic. One would have tried them and adapted them at one’s own pace but the pandemic did not allow the luxury to do so. The pandemic put into perspective the difference between needs and wants and many of the wants became needs. This led to immediate change in habits and trends, instead of a gradual acceptance. And that has made all the difference.

     

  • Much as he loves using it, Sanjeev Kotnala needs the payment platform needs an overhaul of its algorithms

    G Pay: The Good, Bad and Ugly…

     

     

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    Sanjeev KotnalaEveryone has an option for digital payments. BharatPe, BHIM, UPI, PAYTM, GPay and many more mobile wallets. However, one of them becomes the default option. For me, it is Google Pay. GPay, in short. And, it may be true for others, but here I will speak of GPay and my love-hate relationship with it.

     

    The Good

    Okay, honestly, I have no major crib about GPay as the app works fine.

    It allows me the liberty to scan any QR code and payment, and it works seamlessly.

    GPay perfectly documents every transaction and ensures sharing them is smooth.

    Rarely is there a problem with server busy or faulted payments.

    I am a GPay fan and need no further motivation. Everything is just fine.

    I am building homes at Indi-homes – collecting energies to complete the levels- not really interested in the first 2 Lakh home builders to earn anywhere between INR 11 to INR 111.

    However, many friends and family members voiced these concerns about GPay; After sharing the Good part, I amplify their reactions below.

     

    The Bad

    However, I am irritated and frustrated with GPay.

    I suppose they have the best of the listening and tracking ways of how I live and what I do. At least they have the financial transactions and intelligent algorithm other brands use.

    Then, why does GPay in rewards keep me giving free membership and trial opportunities across brands? Okay! The trial is free for new users and subscribers. And Google would /should/could know I am a member of these services.

    It keeps changing its picture capture games, from Diwali Cards to IPL to others. And I never get all the cards. GPay algorithms that deal me the cards ensure I get many cards but never the complete deck, which will allow me to go for the jackpot. G-pay then wants me to trade cards with my friends to complete the deck. Does GPay think I work for it or have time and energy for referring or inviting friends on the platform?

    Most optimistic brands: GPay knows I am not interested, and I have not reacted for the last 20 times they have sent the free three-month membership. Optimistic GPay believes the 21st time I will change. So, with punctual clinical consistency, it regularly serves these reminder awards. And it then follows up with a notification that the useless, irrelevant, irritatingly frustrating awards option may expire.

    GPay asks me to refer new possible customers. It also goads me to pay INR 1 to people in my contact list on joining the G-pay Brand Wagon. GPay knows I have never done that, and GPay knows none of my friends has ever given me the INTR 1 welcome gift. It knows it is futile to ask me again and again. But, the brand is optimistic that I will change first than its so-called personalised approach based on incredible self-learning algorithms?

     

    The Ugly

    I know I am not the luckiest guy on earth. But my luck is not so bad that I keep getting served ‘Better luck next time’ cards by GPay. Adding insult to injury, I must scratch the cards to uncover the message at every milestone. Every milestone promises a cashback up to INR 1000, and I thought Upto meant at least INR 1 to start with. However, the only thing it does is to ruin my day by telling me ‘Better Luck Next Time’. Or: Your Bad Luck is Kharraab!

    In some 427 transactions of more than 3 lakh, I have won 233 cashback and some 50 ‘Better Luck Next Time’ cards. Don’t give me cash back- but don’t make me scratch a coupon to read this silly luck line.

     

    Net-Net

    I have become so comfortable with GPay that it’s the default option. However, from time to time, GPay sends me those messages and notifications, including ‘Better Luck Next Time”. Frankly, I am not interested, and it only ends up spoiling my whole consumer experience.

    So, time for the platform to use its tech muscles to differentiate between consumers waiting, willing and wanting the freebee and who wants the app for its primary function- just to pay- nothing else.