In what could enhance sales management for small merchants in India, a local payment provider has devised an application enabling small-business owners to accept payments on their mobile phones.
Mumbai-based PayMate India Pvt. Ltd. launched the PayPOS application, designed to allow small businesses to accept credit and debit card payments through their smartphones phones at the point of sale, the firm said in a May 8 press release.
During the first month the application was available local merchants downloaded it 25,000 times, the firm said.
The application is free for merchants, a PayMate spokesperson tells PaymentsSource, but the company will charge merchants an undisclosed fee per transaction.
To initiate a transaction using the application, a merchant enters a customer’s mobile number and the purchase amount, then passes his handset to the customer who provides his card details through an interactive voice response system.
When the transaction is complete, the customer receives an e-receipt via a text message to his mobile number, the firm said.
“To charge, the merchant just needs to enter the mobile number and the amount on the screen,” he says. “The customer then enters the card details and the secure password and the transaction is then processed in real time.”
The application also gives merchants access to data such as transaction history and other reports on their mobile phones as well online via a dedicated web portal, he says.
“We expect businesses in the unorganized retail sector to benefit tremendously" from the services the application provides, the spokesperson says.
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