Fintech major PhonePe on Thursday announced the launch of its Point-of-sale (POS) device that enables merchants to accept payments via debit cards, credit cards and UPI in a move to become a complete offline payment service provider.
"By accepting credit and debit transactions, merchants
can expect an increase in their average ticket size, ultimately driving overall business growth. With PhonePe’s extensive network of over 3.5 crore merchants nationwide, our goal is to expand this solution
pan India and deploy 150,000 devices by next year," Said Vivek Lohcheb, Head of Offline Business at PhonePe.
The device comes preloaded with the PhonePe POS app
and supports transactions through tap/swipe/dip and interoperable dynamic QR codes.
"The device is offered at a nominal monthly rental and comes with world-class product quality and service from PhonePe," the firm said in a media statement.
The move also comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of India is mulling bringing in more regulations on KYC and other payment processes for companies offering offline PoS devices.
The PoS device market is presently dominated by players like Pine Labs, Razorpay, Paytm.
PhonePe's direct rival, Paytm in June this year launched a new PoS device which is a mix of PoS device that accepts cards and UPI payment apart from acting as a soundbox for merchants which is an audio assisted smart device with a small portable speaker for your daily payment alerts which comes with a SIM based connectivity.
Fintech unicorn Razorpay acquired Ezetap in 2022 in a cash-and-equity deal which was reported to be around $150 million, marking its entry into the offline payments space.
PhonePe has been launching new services and products.
On June 14 launched its online payment gateway in an attempt to serve MSME (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) merchants across the country. It also launched its merchant lending platform, allowing banks and NBFCs to provide access to credit in a completely digital and seamless manner to its vast base of over 35 million merchants.
As per RBI's data available as of May 2023, there are around 79 lakh PoS devices across India out of this Paytm Payments Bank has around 6.4 lakh devices across India.
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