The last couple of years have drastically changed the way consumers shop in India – both online and offline. Covid-19 has not just driven businesses to make safety a priority but also compelled them to look for solutions that offer a faster and smoother shopping experience.
Frictionless payments are the most crucial step to a successful shopping experience. However, a common belief is that only a website or an app can help with hassle-free payments online.
For many small businesses building a website with integrated payment solutions is not feasible – it demands additional resources and incurs significant costs.
Offline businesses on the other hand often rely on QR and POS to streamline payments. But in cases where stores draw huge crowds or the orders need to be home delivered or where it’s a big purchase and customers want to pay via credit card at their home premises, enabling seamless payments can be difficult.
In all cases, managing payments through cash on delivery is a big hassle for merchants.
Why cash on delivery is a deterrent for small businesses
In spite of the ease of online transactions many buyers still find it convenient to pay in cash, however it is exactly the opposite for merchants – unfavourable and tedious. Here are the reasons:
Cost: The delivery cost of products where payment is done in cash by the buyer is often more than the usual fees charged by the delivery partner. Needless to day, it is incurred by the merchant making it costlier to manage COD orders.
Cash flow: With online transactions, businesses can opt for instant or real-time settlements depending on the need and urgency for liquidity. But, when a customer pays through cash, the amount can take more time to reach the merchant from the customer & delivery partner which hampers the cash flow.
Item returns: If the customer hasn’t made the payment in advance for a product that is being bought, there are chances of the buyer declining the order at their doorstep. Since buyers haven’t invested in the order, they may not feel liable to accept it. This in turn is an unnecessary cost for the business.
Refunds: When customers return a COD order, the process of refunds is rather long and needs to be done manually. Starting with communicating with the customer for their bank and personal details, sharing them with the finance team, waiting for the payout period and finally updating the customer on the status – the whole cycle can easily take upto a week.
A simple yet efficient solution can effectively eliminate these challenges and make transacting even simpler.
Paytm Payment Links – a revolutionary way to accept payments & ace home delivery without a website/app or any coding knowledge
Paytm Payment Links is a dynamic offering to help businesses accept payments faster from their customers without the need for a website/app or any coding experience.
Businesses can create unique links from the Paytm For Business dashboard and instantly share them with their customers. Buyers then need to click on the link and proceed with their preferred type of payment. The options include 100+ payment sources such as credit/debit cards, net banking, UPI, Paytm Wallet, and Paytm Postpaid that allows customers a single click checkout along with shop now, pay later (EMIs).
Paytm Payment Links is an easy way to collect payments instantly and remotely from your buyers especially during home delivery of goods. Transactions through Paytm Payment Links can be summarised through the following three steps:
Link creation: Businesses can create payment links from the Paytm dashboard by simply entering the purpose of payment and the final amount to be paid by the customer
Link sharing: Once the merchant has finalised the link it can be sent to the customer through email, WhatsApp, SMS, chatbots and even social media.
Payment completion: The customers need to click on the link to access it either on their Paytm app or browser and proceed with payment. The confirmation is sent to the business through an SMS, email or APIs. They can also initiate -click refunds & track all payments in a single view through the dashboard.
How Paytm Payment Links can benefit retail businesses
With industry-high transaction success rates and a paperless onboarding, Paytm Payment Links are perhaps the quickest way to start accepting payments. Moreover, they can streamline your businesses in several ways – here’s a look at the prime benefits.
Easy and instant set-up: Paytm Payment Links can be created instantly without the need for any code, and hence can be used to accept payments where other forms of transactions take time or demand more details and information.
For instance, let’s say your sales team has closed an offline deal with a customer and needs to proceed with payments. In such cases, sharing the link directly with the customer can help you collect the money instantly without follow-ups or delays.
Convenient to use: Since businesses can simply create, paste and forward the links to the buyer, the otherwise time-consuming tasks of filling invoices and generating receipts are no longer essential.
There is also an option of sending automatic payment reminders, setting link expiry, and sharing up to 50000 payment links at once. Businesses can access transaction reports through the dashboard and access the collated data of multiple payments.
Quick settlements: Paytm Payment Links are the industry’s only payment links that offer a direct settlement into the merchant’s bank account basis KYC details. Moreover, the standard settlement is T+1 which is applicable throughout the year, irrespective of bank holidays or weekends.
Secure and economical: With 0% MDR on payments that are done through UPI or RuPay cards, Paytm Payment Links are significantly cheaper than other solution providers.
With PCI-DSS compliance for real-time risk detection and fraud prevention technology, you are assured of safe and secure payments every time your customers transact.
Which businesses should opt for Paytm Payment Links
Every business should! The one that has a website for its store, the one that depends on social channels for sales and the one that only has an offline presence. Paytm Payment Links can be useful for businesses of all types. Here are a few examples.
Retail Merchants with home delivery orders: Whether you run a restaurant or a furniture store, delivering products to your customers’ doorstep is not very difficult – thanks to the numerous logistic companies.
But, oftentimes the delivery executives have to manage cash payments and other times customers do not have the exact bill amount handy. Paytm Payment Links solve these issues and ensure that the payment directly reaches the merchant account.
Retail Merchants with high order value: Goods of high order value such as jewellery and appliances that are home delivered incur a cash in transit risk for the delivery team. Alternatively, payment done through NEFT/Cheque/RTGS takes time to reflect and confirm. Also when making a high ticket purchase, most customers prefer paying via credit cards owing to reward points.
Paytm Payments Links allow the customers to choose their preferred method of payment and proceed with the transaction without having to share any personal information such as mobile number and bank details.
Stores with large footfalls: Annual sales or special offers draw huge crowds and long billing queues. The delays at the cash counter subsequently hamper the customer experience.
Store executives can generate the Paytm Payment Link with purchase details for their respective customers and help make instant payments without having to wait.
Merchants with limited online presence: Several stores operate online without a website of their own. They usually establish a presence on social media and reach their audience through ads and other mediums of communication.
When consumers want to buy a product from these stores, payments through the web page are not an option. For such cases, Paytm Payment Links is the perfect solution to accept payments remotely.
Payment links can also be used as an additional mode of payment along with other online options. There may be instances where customers are unable to transact successfully on the website or app and need an alternative to complete their purchase.
Paytm Payments Links can be added to the chatbots as well for customers to enjoy an efficient and quick shopping experience on your website.
Conclusion
Payment links are a simplified option for payments. For any business owner aspiring to sort payments for their customers with the least hassles, Paytm Payment Links is the ideal solution. Irrespective of the industry you operate in or its scale, Paytm Payment Links can give a boost to your business with minimum time and resources.
Quick transactions and greater convenience can be the best attributes of your business from a user’s perspective. Paytm Payment Links’ easy navigability and a clean user interface give your target audience the perfect customer experience and assure your business of the much-deserved enhancement.
