Whether it’s a D2C brand, streaming platform, or grocery and dairy startups, offering subscription services has become the go-to strategy of Indian businesses to ensure a steady revenue stream.
And it’s not a push strategy. In fact, more and more customers are lapping up the idea of buying subscriptions of products and services they like. As a result, the demand for innovative solutions to deal with recurring payments has gone up.
With the rise in recurring payments, businesses not only need to offer a top-notch payments experience to their users, but they also need to be prepared to handle different payment cycles, cancel subscriptions, offer innovative subscription models, etc.
Paytm Payment Gateway has just the right solutions to handle these issues. Businesses can put their worry to rest with our product – Paytm Subscriptions as it is adept at maneuvering all types of recurring payments.
But before we get into the details of Paytm Subscriptions, let’s first talk about the major regulatory change that RBI made for recurring payments.
RBI’s mandate on recurring payments
Last year, the RBI said that banks will have to notify customers 24 hours in advance for all recurring payments and get their approval in the form of an OTP to process such payments. This is a one-time effort, post which payments will be processed automatically.
However, for recurring payments of more than Rs 5,000, customers will have to give a go-ahead for the auto-debit by confirming the OTP to the bank 24 hours before the payment date.
To put things into perspective, around 75% of recurring payments made within the country are below Rs. 5,000.
Also Read: New Rule on Auto-Debit from Cards to Take Effect from October 1st
These changes, enforced from October 1, 2021, are effective only for standing instructions on debit or credit cards. UPI Autopay and e-mandate on NACH for loan payments are unaffected by this.
Now that we have covered the regulatory changes for recurring payments, let’s get on with how Paytm Payment Gateway can help businesses in collecting recurring payments.
How Paytm Payment Gateway simplifies recurring payments
Paytm Payment Gateway understands that different businesses will have to have unique plans for their users. We have built our subscription offerings keeping this in mind.
Paytm Payment Gateway’s Subscriptions product can help businesses provide the option of a fixed amount pay at first and then set up a fixed, as well as the variable fee based on the usage.
Businesses can also use it to reach customers who want to try the platform first before committing to it. The variable cost can help retain a customer longer as they only need to pay according to their usage.
Any business that has previously used Paytm Payment Gateway will vouch for the fact that when we solve an industry problem, we go all out and bring products that cover all aspects of the problem.
Following this theme, we provide three different solutions for businesses to collect recurring payments.
- Paytm Subscriptions
Our primary recurring payments product, Paytm subscriptions allows businesses to set up and customise payment plans. With Paytm Subscriptions, businesses can collect one-time approval from customers to auto-debit their bank account and automatically collect payment every billing cycle.
Since Paytm Subscriptions supports all types of payment modes including debit and credit cards, net banking, and UPI, customers have a wide array of options to choose from.
Paytm Subscriptions comes in handy specifically for content companies, individuals who sell newsletter subscriptions, BFSIs, edtech, and others.
- Subscription Links
Businesses that don’t want to invest in building their own website or app but rely on accepting recurring payments from customers, can use Paytm Subscription Links.
With Paytm Subscription Links, businesses get to leverage the features of Paytm Subscriptions and Paytm Payment Links.
Businesses simply have to create a subscription plan for their customers and send the link to them. Once they accept the subscription plan and choose a payment method, businesses can start accepting payments on a recurring basis.
Also Read: Automate Recurring Payments with Paytm Subscription Links
Businesses can rely on Paytm Subscription Links because of their high conversion rates. In case of payment failure, you can retry the payment or, even better, let Paytm do it automatically on your behalf.
Paytm Subscription Links not only ensures recurring payments are cleared periodically, but it also saves up on businesses’ cost of setting up a website.
- UPI AutoPay
NPCI launched UPI AutoPay in July 2020 to bring users and merchants who deal with recurring payments to use UPI in a more meaningful way.
UPI AutoPay allows customers to enable auto-debit for online recurring payments. With UPI AutoPay, customers will not have to enter the security pin for recurring payments of up to Rs. 5,000.
Paytm has integrated with UPI AutoPay, which allows businesses to leverage UPI payment rails for their subscription-led revenue model.
Existing Paytm Subscriptions should write to us at payments.helpdesk@paytm.com. We will enable UPI AutoPay for them via a simple API integration directly on their existing merchant accounts.
Also Read: What is UPI AutoPay & How Does it Work for Subscription Businesses
Conclusion
Paytm Payment Gateway’s Subscription offering is already being used by more than 100 digital businesses to collect recurring payments automatically. More than 30 million subscriptions have already been created on our subscription platform.
Start accepting recurring payments today.
