With the Internet user base expected to rise from 622 million in 2020 to 900 million in 2025, online buying and selling are most likely to grow from its present state. Since consumer behavior is highly influenced by the convenience of buying things and the availability of personalised offerings, recurring payments and use of UPI strike the right chords for them.
These types of payment largely form the foundation of subscriptions as a payment product and UPI AutoPay.
From door-step delivery of daily essentials to OTT platforms, almost everything is available in the form of a subscription plan. In terms of payment mode, UPI has become one of the most preferred payment sources used in India.
While paying for services/products via subscriptions is appealing to consumers, having UPI as a payment mode solves many hassles. As a result, the combination of UPI and subscriptions have become equally important for many businesses.
Let’s touch both UPI and subscriptions from the fundamentals.
Journey of UPI towards UPI AutoPay
UPI became the preferred choice of payment for millions of Indians since its inception in 2016. The total UPI transactions jumped to 1.15 billion in Oct 2019 from 0.96 billion in Sep 2019, said NPCI Press Release. At the beginning of the year 2020, UPI transaction volume reached 1.31 billion, amounting to Rs. 2,16,242 crores, says the NPCI statistics.
From then onwards, there was no looking back. The statistics for July 2021 for UPI includes:
- Transactional volume of 3.25 billion
- Total amount of Rs. 6,06, 281 crores
Now with RBI finally allowing UPI to also support recurring payments, Paytm Payment Gateway has led the payments innovation journey in India by being the first payment gateway offering UPI AutoPay to its users. It has added the support of UPI to its subscription offering to help businesses provide the maximum payment options to their customers.
More About UPI AutoPay
The UPI AutoPay feature was the most recent launch by NPCI at the Global Fintech Festival 2020. It is based on the simple concept of enabling payments automatically via UPI for recurring expenses.
The new feature allows users to opt for recurring automatic payments using any UPI app for up to Rs. 2,000 per month. Beyond the Rs 2,000 monthly limit, they would have to authenticate the mandate using the UPI PIN.
These recurring payment mandates can be created for the desired frequency, i.e., daily, weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually. As a result, it provides greater flexibility and control to consumers over subscription payments. They can view all mandates and subscriptions any time and pause/revoke them anytime on their UPI app.
What are subscriptions?
Subscriptions are agreements between customers and merchants for a regular exchange of payments and products/services. They are also interchangeably referred to as recurring business models, recurring payments, or autopay.
What do the customers subscribe for? The answer is – almost everything!
Music streaming, video streaming, cloud storage, Internet services, dating, gaming – you name it and can easily find it available in the form of subscriptions. The best part – subscriptions offer dual-sided benefits for both sellers and consumers.
Benefits of subscriptions for consumers
- No need to remember when to renew the subscription plans opted for various personal or business-related needs
- No need to make payments manually as the plan price will automatically get deducted from the linked bank account
- Convenience of seamless, uninterrupted access to products/services for a specific period
Benefits of subscriptions for businesses
- Predictable revenue generation
- Loyal customer base held for a long term
- End to the struggles related to in-person payment collection and sending reminders to customers for timely payments
- Ease of upselling and cross-selling based on the given customization options
- Better budgeting
Subscriptions with Paytm Payment Gateway at a glance
Paytm Payment Gateway, being one of the most reliable payment gateways in the Indian market, already has the subscription features available for different types of businesses. Monthly bill payments collection, loan collection, grocery selling – it can be used to support a plethora of small and big businesses.
Customers could pay for their subscriptions using the preferred payment methods like credit cards, debit cards, and net banking, UPI was not available as a payment method. That is where the launch of UPI AutoPay by NPCI in July 2020 came to play a significant role.
How Does UPI AutoPay Work with Paytm Payment Gateway?
- Merchants ask customers to choose the subscription plan (with details like frequency, amount, end date etc.)
- Customers will activate subscription by entering the MPIN on their Paytm app
- All subsequent payments will be deducted from their bank account automatically
Paytm Payment Gateway supports UPI Autopay on Subscriptions via multiple checkout options, including:
- Custom Checkout
- All-in-One SDK
- Standard Checkout
Further, with our subscriptions product, all UPI Payment experiences (UPI Push, UPI Intent, UPI Collect) are available.
Want to start offering UPI AutoPay facility to collect recurring payments for your business?
