SoftPOS is set to empower micro merchants and scale business

Internet penetration in India stood at 45% with 625 million internet users and 1.10 billion mobile connections as of January 2021. Thanks to affordable smartphones, data packs and prevalent telecom infrastructure, digital payments through mobile is being made available to banking consumers irrespective of their age, gender, class, and educational background thereby resulting in an incredible growth across the country. 

The adoption of digital payment modes is being further fueled by progressive measures undertaken by the regulator over past few years. As things are swiftly going back to normality, both consumers and merchants continue to make purchases digitally or via contactless payment modes. Technology-led payment companies along with banks are empowering merchants with new acceptance modes by leveraging mobile on large scale as the need of the hour is to provide integrated payment solutions to small businesses which cater to their needs. 

Today, more and more consumers are getting equipped with new age payment tools. The acceptance infrastructure should be able to match the supply side, especially by offering interoperable payment solutions which can seamlessly accept funds from multiple modes like EMV chip or contactless cards, online payments, payment via QR codes along with additional value added services. While the physical POS facilitates the growth of digital transactions primarily in urban areas and large businesses, new innovative solutions like SoftPOS is gearing up to support SMEs and businesses in tier 3 cities and beyond.

SoftPOS allows the merchant to transform their mobile into payment acceptance device. It provides a cost-effective card acceptance solution for all micro-merchants and SMEs and eliminates the need to invest in a POS terminal. It works on all NFC enabled android smartphones running Android v6.0 and above. Interestingly, merchants can be on-boarded instantly and they can start using the application to accept digital payments as it is built on the principles of DIY (Do It Yourself), focused on instant on-boarding and usage with real time digital KYC implementations.

This initiative will help in democratizing digital payments and reducing cash dependency among SMEs and micro merchants in long run. Currently, merchants can accept contactless payments of up to Rs. 5000 with a simple tap on their smartphones and gradually, its convenience and features will curb cash transactions while ensuring seamless shopping experience and quicker check-outs. In conclusion, SoftPOS has the potential to transform digitalization efforts of the government achieve financial inclusion goals for the nation and help in scale business of small merchants.

The article is authored by Vishal Maru, SVP- Merchant Payment Services, Loyalty and Digital Payments, Worldline India