Paytm today introduced its App POS (Point of Sale) system at an event in New Delhi. This will allow Paytm merchants to accept payments from debit and credit cards.
As per Paytm’s CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, there are only 1.4 million POS machines in India and Paytm aims to have 10 million Paytm POS apps by this weekend.
Paytm will charge 0 transaction fees for this till December 31. With the new App POS, merchants will be able to accept debit and credit cards using the App without having to buy a card swipe machine.
“We want to be the largest acquirer in the country, with an order of magnitude of tens and merchants. This year we are expected to clear Rs 30,000 crore of payments. We’re headed towards 2 billion transactions this year. Today we have 1.5 million merchants which accept payments using Paytm. We’re expecting this to become 15 million by the end of this year,” said, Paytm CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
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Using this is very simple. The shop keeper after generating your bill will give you his smartphone to enter your card details. Then, you will get an OTP or One Time Password on your device which you need to enter in the shopkeeper’s device. Once you enter the OTP, the transaction is completed. The only issue in this may be the time taken to complete one transaction using Paytm POS will be higher than the time taken by the usual swipe machines.
That being said, this soft POS transaction method is far more cost-efficient than a physical POS machine. It is also simple and straightforward, and perhaps Paytm could come up with new updates that will not require you to manually enter card details. Until then, though, this is a very innovative and cost-effective first attempt.
What do you think about this new feature from Paytm? Voice your opinion in the comments below.
