If you have used apps like Saavn and Gaana, you would know about recurring bill payment service run by Paytm. Users can choose to pay through Paytm every time the subscription is required, making it convenient for both the customers and the business.
However, the company has now extended the same to entrepreneurs and developers, who would like to charge users for their apps and services. For example, an entrepreneur selling groceries online can use Paytm as a billing service for recurring payments now.
Kiran Vasireddy, SVP at Paytm, talked about this initiative, “Our easy-to-integrate subscription billing service would make payments easier and seamless than ever before while allowing new age entrepreneurs to offer innovative services at an aggressive pricing. Developers can now have instant access to Paytm’s sandbox and can go live with this frictionless payment flow in no time.”
Developers can log on to paywithpaytm.com/developers and download the relevant API to enable the service. After a one-time authorization by the customer, the subscription amount would be auto-debited from the customer’s Paytm wallet at a given interval.
Paytm’s sandbox allows business, entrepreneurs and developers to go live within hours, along with well-documented APIs, SDKs and Plugins for smooth integration. If a customer subscribes to the monthly billing service, a pre-fixed & approved amount will be debited every month from their Paytm wallet.
The customers can still choose to cancel their subscription anytime they want and remove Paytm from the payment method. However, it provides the customer with an option to send the payment regularly without worrying about defaulting on the payments and discontinuation of the service.
“Companies such as Gaana, Hotter and Saavn are live with the option to pay through Paytm wallets. The platform has also created plug-ins for all major e-commerce platforms like Magento, Drupal Commerce, WordPress, and more,” says a report by ET.
In January 2017, Paytm announced that it has processed over 1 billion transactions and recorded 147 million wallet users in 2016. Demonetization played a strong role in getting the digital wallet to this level, however, it is short-lived as remonetization has picked up pace.
Even then, with so many users on the platform, it is a good news for developers and entrepreneurs who couldn’t accept Paytm for recurring payments. This will also allow these people to decide their prices and have a healthy competition in the market, considering payments through Paytm are effortless.
