Mobikwik Goes Big on Hyperlocal with ‘Explore Nearby’ in Partnership with 10,000 Merchants!

The Offline push from digital and mobile wallets in India has been quite visible over past 12 months. While online payments market is quite large, the offline push gives these wallets exposure to payments market with unlimited boundaries.

MobiKwik, one of the India’s largest independent mobile payments network has today announced a major foray into offline market. Aptly called “Explore Nearby”, this hyperlocal service from Mobikwik enables discovery of neighborhood stores, restaurants, cafes, etc. that accept their wallet payments.

With this launch, MobiKwik claims to be the mobile wallet with widest acceptance in offline brick-and-mortar stores.

To launch ‘Explore Nearby’, Mobikwik has partnered with over 10,000 partner retail stores, which includes merchants such as Big Bazaar, Barista, Domino’s Pizza, WHSmith India, Archies, Sagar Ratna, thousands of restaurants and many others.

To check out Explore Nearby on Mobikwik, user has a dedicated tab, which shows the neighborhood stores superimposed on the maps. The app also gives directions to the selected store from user’s location. Users can also view existing offers at these outlets and pay via MobiKwik to redeem it.

With Explore Nearby, users can easily find all the stores in the vicinity that accept cashless payments.

Apart from retail stores, the feature also shows the locations where the mobile wallet can be topped up with cash. Last year in May, Mobikwik has partnered with ICICI Bank to enable users to load their mobile wallet through cash deposits. Users can also use some of Mobikwik’s offline retail partners like WHSmith that assist the users to top up their wallet using hard cash.

Bipin Preet Singh, Founder-CEO of MobiKwik said in regards to this launch, “With the Explore Nearby feature we are connecting offline retail stores with over 30 million users on our platform. Be it for purchasing grocery at your corner store or a family dinner at your local restaurant, the wallet now makes it easier for you to discover, shop & dine at MobiKwik supported merchants in your vicinity. Offline stores can now attract MobiKwik users depending on their location and preferences resulting in higher sales.”

With Mobikwik making a big offline entry with “Explore Nearby”, it will be interesting to see how other mobile wallets react to this move!