Paytm plans up to 50,000 outlets

Mumbai: Digital wallet provider Paytm is looking to set up 30,000 to 50,000 retail outlets where its 2.4 crore customers can load cash on their digital wallet. The company is also looking to enrol retailers - mostly kirana stores - as merchants for accepting digital payments. To encourage users to hold funds in its prepaid account, the company on Thursday said it has linked its wallet to the banking system to enable cash withdrawals from it.

"For India to move from a cash economy to a cashless one, we need to have a number of places where cash can be converted into electronic form," Amit Lakhotia, VP-payments at Paytm, told TOI. He said while physical outlets would involve higher costs (compared to electronic bank transfers), it would increase adoption and help transform Paytm into a ubiquitous payments platform. "Until now, the user was able to do wallet-to-wallet transfers. Now, he will be able to transfer funds to the bank as well. Although we want customers to use the wallet for online payments, we expect this facility to boost customer confidence," he said.

The other advantage is that once Paytm is linked to their bank accounts, customers will find it easier to fund their accounts. As of now, customers fund their accounts through credit cards, debit cards and net banking. But funding accounts using a card involves a transaction cost paid to the card issuer.

According to Lakhotia, the entry of banks into the digital wallet space would not impact Paytm. "It is a game of customer experience and whoever does well will succeed. We don't look at banks as competitors, rather we see them as partners," he said.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.