India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a mobile real-time payments system launched in June 2016 by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which in turn is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India. NPCI recently upgraded to UPI 2.0, which adds overdrafts and associated invoices, among other things. This piece, which was posted in ETRetail.com, discusses the adoption of UPI by Walmart as a payment tool for the company’s registered e-commerce members.
Walmart India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart Inc, on Thursday activated unified payments interface (UPI) for all its registered members. This payment solution will enable members, especially kiranas/resellers, who shop online at Walmart India’s B2B e-commerce site bestprice.in, to make direct and secured payments online from their bank account without sharing bank details, the global retail giant said in a press release on Thursday.
The ‘kiranas’ mentioned are essentially mom and pop retailers who seek to stock up for their goods via Walmart’s e-commerce site, but likely do not have a credit card relationship. So the UPI acceptance allows these small businesses to pay direct via a bank account without the need to enter account details. This is a continuance of the move towards a digital economy in India, an initiative that started several years back, most famously highlighted by the demonetization of certain selected banknotes in 2016.
“This initiative reiterates our commitment to enable small businesses, especially kiranas, prosper. This payment solution will help our members spend more time with their customers and serve them better as they do not have to step out of their stores to visit banks for making payments.”
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
