Just 5-7 days to avail payback: 'Instant Refunds' is the 'new normal'

Razorpay has launched Instant Refunds for businesses to amp up up consumers' online payment experience.

The new product, the full-stack financial services company claims, will activate activate refunds and credit the customer's source account across payment methods like UPI, netbanking and credit card within one minute of initiation.

As per the company release, India is one of the fastest growing online retail markets today. About 71 percent of internet users in the country purchase products online. Today, the refund process has two major pain points for both the end customer and the business.

Firstly, a delay of five-seven business days for the customer in receiving the money because of multiple intermediaries like the acquiring bank, issuing bank and the networks (VISA/MasterCard/Rupay).

Secondly, the lack of transparency during the entire refund process for both the customer and the business. This long cycle of processing refunds is a significant problem with every popular payment method in the industry.

By issuing refunds instantly, Razorpay will help businesses retain its customers, build trust through an improved hassle-free payment experience and and provide complete transparency on refunds to both the business and the end-user, according to the company.

This new feature promises to reduce the dependence on manpower as every refund issue on an average leads to ten service emails or calls from customer support teams.

Shashank Kumar, CTO & Co-founder of Razorpay says, “Instant Refunds are the new normal and central to a great customer experience. A lot of consumers fail to use online payment methods as they feel getting refunds through an online platform is a very time-consuming task, hence they prefer CoD as the best alternative. Given the technological advancements being made in the fintech ecosystem, its fair for customers to expect refunds as fast as possible. A solution like Instant Refunds will not only help build consumer confidence in digital payments but also reduce losses for ecommerce companies where CoD has become an expensive option with more than 50% online transactions made through cash.”

He added, “Our Instant Refunds feature ensures that the refund is processed at a 3600x faster pace than the normal expected time of five-seven business days. The team is focused on creating new technologies designed to make the entire payment lifecycle hassle-free. We believe this new feature will take customer experience a notch higher, help brands create a competitive advantage, and even make them more profitable.”

Razorpay claims in its press release that its growth has been uphill, particularly in the last two years. With a 500 percent growth in 2019, the company has been witnessing a healthy growth rate of 35 percent month-on-month (MoM), the release says.

The company also recently launched its corporate credit cards for its partner businesses, RazorpayX Current Accounts, Support for Freelancers and Homepreneurs, and acquired Opfin, a Payroll and HR Management Software company.