Go Cashless: Paytm launches Nearby feature

You can definitely call it as Modi’s demonetisation effect, India seems to be definitely moving towards cashless payment. Right after PM’s announcement to scrap 500 and 1000 rupee notes, eCommerce startup biggies have been promoting cashless payments rigorously. Paytm has now announced a new ‘Nearby’ feature that will make it easier for users to identify the nearby Paytm merchants. This feature currently lists over 2,00,000 merchants, and Paytm promises to have over 8,00,000 merchants in a short time.

Sonia Dhawan – DGM, Paytm, commented “At Paytm, the approach has always been to build an ecosystem that benefits both merchants and customers such that the customers will appreciate the increased convenience of finding Paytm services near them, the merchants and partners of Paytm values the exponential increase in visibility and new business through nearby feature expected to come into play an important role over this”. This is, however, a great example of how mobile technology can drive businesses across the retail industry by redefining the hyper-local space.”

The company today also announced the acquisition of Delhi-based Shopsity to further strengthen its O2O network for small retailers. “Paytm is doing phenomenal stuff in the offline commerce space, and we are very excited to join the team and build a platform that enables small retailers to ride the digital wave. Millions of retailers are using Paytm to accept payments today, and we’re working hard to bring an entire suite of digital services to them,” Danish Ahmed, co-founder at Shopsity said.

The Indian eCommerce giant is aiming for 4 million offline merchants by March 2017 and also has plans to hire over 10,000 agents in the coming days.