MobiKwik sees spike in retailer enrolment from Tier II, III cities

Indian mobile wallet major, MobiKwik said that Tier II and Tier III towns are leading the next level of growth in cashless transactions as the steps initiated by the Central Government to promote digital payments in smaller towns are yielding results.
States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand are leading this growth as more and more merchants begin accepting digital payments.
“The Government’s move to incentivise use of digital payments and extending loans based on a digital footprint has created a larger merchant ecosystem for digital payments,” Co-Founder, MobiKwik, Upasana Taku said.
For MobiKwik too, the push has come from such regions. The country’s largest independent mobile wallet has seen a 3,000 per cent increase in merchant enrolments from such regions. With this, MobiKwik has now enabled 1.3 million merchants across India.
In the recent Union Budget for 2017-18, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made provisions like expanding the Bharat Net project that promises to be a game changer in digitising rural India. He allocated Rs 10,000 crore to Bharat Net for providing digital access to over 150,000 gram panchayats, while also improving the fiber optic network in the rural regions.
“Besides, GST and increased allocations to policies like M-SIPS and EDF will further reduce the cost of owning a smartphone, hence making it easier for users from Tier II, III, and IV cities and towns to transition online,” Taku said.
MobiKwik recently introduced a lighter version of the app, MobiKwik LITE, that is less than 1 MB in size and can be downloaded directly by any shopkeeper or retailer by giving a missed call to 80971-80971 from any feature phone, even without an email id and without having a Google Play Store account. The app can be downloaded from within 30 seconds, even on a 2G/EDGE connection. The Lite version caters to users who do not have a smart phone or fast internet speed.
The app is now available in 8 languages; English, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu to enable more consumers adopt digital mode of payments. Users can load money on their m-wallets either through net banking or by using their credit/debit cards.
“We are very proud that digital literacy is spreading fast and consumers are increasingly taking to digital payments,” Taku added.
Users can load money on their m-wallets either through net banking or by using their credit/debit cards.
MobiKwik’s recent additions in the merchant base include leading retail chains like Big Bazaar, Croma, EZone, Pantaloons, Vishal Mega Mart and Star Bazaar.