Digital payment solution and innovation in this space are thriving in India. Mobile wallet and digital payment provider FreeCharge has introduced ‘Chat and Pay‘ feature, which offers social payment for users and merchants through simple chat in under five seconds.
The new chat-based payments service allow two friends to pay each other as well as allow a user to pay local merchants such as taxi driver, grocery vendors and other small store owners securely from the app.
FreeCharge Chat and Pay service enable merchants to accept payments using the app in under a minute of registration and under five second transaction time. The company is looking to tap the vast majority of unorganised sectors like neighbourhood stores, street vendors using the service. Merchants can accept up to Rs 10000 per month in their wallet without any proof and can easily upgrade to a higher payment limit of Rs 1,00,000 by submitting KYC documents.
Merchants can accept up to Rs 10000 per month in their wallet without any proof and can easily upgrade to a higher payment limit of Rs 1,00,000 by submitting KYC documents. Merchants can also transfer their earned money to their bank account by submitting the bank details with FreeCharge. Currently, FreeCharge won’t be charging any transaction fees on the bank transfer.
“Payments are often social, they are in fact a very human interaction. Chat and Pay bring this human emotion to payments, making them deeply engaging. We are confident Chat and Pay will accelerate the adoption of digital payments ” said Govind Rajan, Chief Operating Officer, FreeCharge in a statement. “Now merchants can start accepting digital payments by just downloading our app. Importantly at zero investment. The Merchant payments through ‘Chat and Pay’ service will give a boost to India’s journey to a cashless economy, ” he added.
A customer using the Chat and Pay can easily discover nearby stores, chat and bargain with merchants and finally place an order and pay on chat. Merchant on the other hand to accept the payment must register their bank account number, geolocation and choose a custom identifier, called paytag which allows customers to discover their service area through the FreeCharge app.
Revolutionising India digital payment sector?
Bringing the same level of personal face to face conversation during a sale with a direct chat interface, FreeCharge is making digital payment deeply engaging. With Government encouraging digital payments with the withdrawal of Service Charges, Surcharge and Convenience fee, the future of cashless digital payments seems to be very bright.
The Chat and Pay feature will be rolled out to FreeCharge Android App first, and then on iOS and Windows over the next few weeks.