ICICI Bank Challenges Paytm’s Dominance With EazyPay – India’s 1st Merchant-Centric Cashless Payments App
India’s largest bank: ICICI has just launched a unique mobile app called Eazypay, which can threaten Paytm’s dominance when it comes to merchant-centric cashless solution.
Described as India’s first such app, Eazypay allows the merchant to receive every form of digital payment – right from debit/credit card to net banking and even UPI based payment.
Eazypay is right now available only for Android users, while iOS version is being currently developed.
Three biggest advantages of Eazypay, which we witnessed in the first look:
– No documentation or KYC required for using this app, as the merchant’s current account would be directly linked with the app. Hence, as soon as the payment is received, it would be transferred to the merchant’s bank account.
– Since this is not a wallet per se, there is no monthly or daily limit to receive and accept cashless payments. With Paytm, monthly limits is a big issue, which has discouraged several non-KYC merchants from opting for their services. And for KYC, several merchants are waiting since months for Paytm’s representatives. Such merchants will quickly divert towards Eazypay now.
– Enabling UPI based cashless payments makes Eazypay a platform independent app for receiving cashless payments. Hence, customers with any bank account can now use UPI as a catalyst to make digital payments via Eazypay app.
While explaining its features, Ms. Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank said, “I believe that the Eazypay mobile application is a path-breaking concept as it facilitates millions of merchants, retailers and professionals across the country to accept digital payments from various modes on a single mobile application.”
How To Use Eazypay
Step 1: Download the Eazypay app on the smartphone which has a ICICI Bank account number linked. As soon as the app is downloaded, it will automatically fetch the linked bank accounts. The merchant needs to select the Current Account, and the app get activated. There is no requirement to share any document for approval.
Step 2: A unique MPin is required for start using this app. Besides, for accepting UPI based payments, the merchant has to create one UPI ID (if he doesnt have one), and using the same, he can accept UPI based payments.
Limitations of Eazypay
As we observed, there are mainly two major limitations:
1) Eazypay can only be used by ICICI Bank customers. This makes it a major restriction, but ensures more safety and security for existing customers. While this can trigger more merchants and small businesses to open their ICICI Bank current accounts, but it can also backfire, as non-ICICI Bank customers can decide not to use this app for accepting digital payments.
2) In terms of wallets, only users of Pocket (ICICI Bank’s own wallet) can use Eazypay to make payments. Hence, users of Paytm or Freecharge, MobiKwik cannot use Eazypay to make cashless payments. However, UPI enabled payments somewhat balances this shortcoming, as users of any bank account having any type of card can use UPI to make payments via Eazypay. But, if Paytm and other wallet users were also allowed to use Eazypay, then it would have been a massive gain.
Overall, the concept and the idea of launching a merchant-centric app which can receive every form of digital and cashless payments sounds really exciting, and one-step ahead of the game. It would be interesting to observe how merchants respond to this new initiative by ICICI Bank, and how much dent it can make in the formidable Paytm’s market share.
