The year 2020 has seen accelerated adoption of digital payments throughout the country. PayU, India’s leading online payments solutions provider, has been a front runner in supporting Small and Medium Businesses by digitizing payments and other aspects of their value chain. It has helped SMBs improve business efficiencies, increase convenience for customers, and reduce costs. Moreover, PayU continues to be the fastest, safest, and most affordable way for merchants to accept international payments, powering their cross-border commerce. PayU on-boarded 100,000 new SMB merchants in the April – June quarter and witnessed a 100% growth in TPV in the SMB segment, as compared to last year.
The pandemic affected small businesses severely and according to a recent survey, 83% of them reported a reduction in revenue. PayU introduced multiple initiatives to support SMBs during the pandemic & lockdown: 100% TDR waiver on the first Rs. 50,000 worth of business done via PayU platform; PayU provided Merchant Cash Advance to help businesses with liquidity and working capital issues and continues to provide this facility; ‘Startups Helping Startups’ platform was launched for emerging businesses to connect and support each other; Built free websites with a built-in payment gateway; Unveiled PayU Academy, a premier self-learning online platform featuring educational video modules, to transform growth for businesses and upskill their workforce.
Constantly responsive to the business needs of merchants, PayU has formed strategic partnerships to support development and address the issues they face: Partnership with Indifi enabled PayU merchants to avail short term credit up to Rs. 50 lakhs; Association with Shiprocket Social and Quick eSelling enabled PayU merchants to launch, manage and optimize online stores and partners’ merchants to digitize transactions.
As a leader in technology innovation, PayU added various products to its portfolio, allowing SMBs to provide more payment options and convenience to consumers and stakeholders: Enhanced Payouts suite lets merchants make bulk disbursals to vendors, partners, employees, and customers directly, streamlining operations. Merchants can also automate repeat payouts to beneficiaries; Customized gift cards help merchants to set up and sell branded and customized gift cards ranging from Rs. 100 – Rs. 10,000, maximizing exposure, reach and sales; UPI AutoPay enables automated collection of recurring payments up to Rs. 2000, from customers; PayU Assist, an AI-based customer service experience launched last year, cut query resolution time for merchants from 25 hours to 2 hours on an average, resulting in faster resolution.
Noopur Chaturvedi, Country Head – Small and Medium Businesses, PayU India, said, “As a business leader, PayU is committed to supporting merchants and ensuring business continuity during these uncertain and unprecedented times. Our vision is to offer end-to-end digitization solutions for SMBs to help improve efficiency and power business growth. Our payment solutions have significantly improved the ease of business for merchants and provided greater convenience to consumers.”