It’s raining mobile wallets at least in urban India! The mobile wallet concept seems to be catching on really fast.
Scores of mobile wallet companies like Oxigen, Mobikwik, Paytm, PayUMoney et al are going all out to attract customers with huge cashbacks on each of their purchases and payments. But is it a sustainable business model? Oxigen recently found out that there is a spike in transactions only during cashbacks. If cashbacks are removed, the transactions are reduced to 2% of their original figures.
The current norm is Use Mobile Wallet, Get Cashback! How do you get out of this indeterminate loop? Here’s how these players are wooing customers with other attractive features.
Mobile Wallet Concept – Beyond Cashbacks
1) Paytm
- Entered the e-commerce zone
Paytm is not just about Cashbacks anymore. They have ventured into the e-commerce space and started online sales of everything from toys to mobiles. They are now a serious competitor to the likes of Flipkart and Amazon and are ready to beat them at their own game.
2) Freecharge
- A strong anchor in Snapdeal
- Dynamic pin for quick transactions
Said to be one of the biggest acquisitions in the internet industry, Freecharge was acquired by Snapdeal. This is big for Freecharge since Snapdeal receives 70% orders from tier-II cities and beyond which is less than 30% for Freecharge in these geographies. So, together they will witness >1 million transactions daily although Freecharge will continue to function as an independent platform.
Freecharge is also introducing Go card with dynamic pin features that change every three seconds to make checkouts of transactions quicker.
3) Ola Money
- Launched independent wallet Ola Money
Olacabs has launched its own independent wallet called Ola Money which will ensure 100% success rate with all transactions within Ola as opposed to other players.
Utility feature:
Parents can recharge wallets for their kids and keep tabs on spending.
4) Oxigen
- Tie ups with leading stores in India
Oxigen has tied up with a whopping 2,00,000 retail outlets in India to encourage users to pay through them instead of cash/cards.
5) PayU Money
- Reducing login hassles with built in password
PayU money is looking all out to reduce hassles associated with login and transaction hassles. They aim to introduce built-in password for the app, to reduce layers in the transaction process.
But are these measures enough to sustain mobile wallet companies?
90% of Indians pay through cash and the rest of the 90% transactions continue to be controlled by banks. How can these players up their game?
- Paytm’s payment bank license by RBI gives hope to other players that they can even start providing the convenience of a traditional bank.
- Wallets need to look into inter-operability. Just as you can use any debit card in any ATM machine of any bank, wallets need to figure out partnership models.
- Wallets need to expand user base with more retail outlet collaborations.
Want to try out the mobile wallet concept? Look for amazing cashbacks from sites like Paytm when you make payments.