After a successful foray into P2P and bill payments, Google Pay is mulling to tie up with small offline retailers based on Unified Payments Interface(UPI).
“It will bring the convenience of card payments onto the smartphone–the only thing required here will be, instead of the card swipe, customers will have to share the mobile number at the billing counter,” as per a top payment executive.
Consumers will receive a collect request on their Google Pay application and can complete the transaction by inserting the UPI PIN. Google pay ranks among the top three payment applications of UPI and its offline move is aimed towards establishing an ecosystem of payment solutions for Indian customers.
India comes as a key market for Google and the company aims to connect the country’s offline market with its online ecosystem.
“There are small-scale pilots that are being run across retail stores in the country. As of now there are no banner advertisements that are being done, only early adopters can test the product,” said a source aware of the matter.
“The plan is to also run localised promotional campaigns for consumers in that area,” added the source.
“Our vision is to enable fast, seamless, and secure payments for our users anywhere, at any time, whether they are paying other users, buying products or services online, recharging mobile balance, paying for utilities or shopping at a retail outlet,” said Ambarish Kenghe, director, product management, Google Pay.
“The offline ecosystem forms an important part of our objective to provide a seamless experience to users transacting with Google Pay,’’ added Kenghe.
