Ecommerce Evolution: Payment solutions, the current focal point; SBI launches ecommerce-specific card

Ever since ecommerce industry emerged in India, the first few years the focus was on expanding the product portfolio, then it was delivery/shipment services followed by attention on m-commerce. Payment solutions/gateway appears to be the present area of operations that ecommerce entities are channeling their energies on.

On what basis, you may ask. Primarily because of the many acquisitions and collaborations between ecommerce companies and banks & online payment businesses, that has taken place in the last one year.

SBI launches SimplyClick Card

State Bank of India recently introduced Simply Click Card, meant specifically for ecommerce transactions. The multinational bank has entered an agreement with seven ecommerce companies across various categories, namely online marketplace Amazon India, movies & events ticketing portal BookMyShow, travel website Cleartrip, online furniture brand FabFurnish, food ordering start-up Foodpanda, eyewear portal Lenskart and cab services Ola.

“We have deep dived into the spending habits of this set of consumers to design the features of our latest card and make their online shopping experience more rewarding,” said Vijay Jasuja, Chief Executive, SimplyClick while speaking about this unique credit card.

Jasuja also added, “The card would offer reward points to the tune of 5x on all online transactions. If done on partner sites, the reward points would be to the tune of 10x.”

Besides reward points, SBI SimplyClick users will get vouchers worth Rs. 4000 for Rs 2 lakh annual online spends. With one-time fee of Rs. 499, the ones who sign-up for it get Amazon welcome voucher and many other perks.

Spotlight on improving online payment services

Cashless payments are being encouraged by ecommerce players. Be it offering discounts/offers or providing cash-backs, they are doing it all. No wonder, growth of ecommerce has resulted in rise of plastic money. We have also witnessed the growing popularity of online wallets, which has compelled online marketplaces like Snapdeal, and Flipkart to launch their own digital wallets.

Saurabh Kochhar, co-founder of Foodpanda correctly stated, “The focus now is to provide solutions for helping to make online payments simpler and lessen cash on delivery. We have a number of mobile wallets incorporated, including Paytm, MobiKwik, SBI Buddy, PayU Money and Oxigen, among others. The cash on delivery for us has reduced considerably.”

The number of mobile wallet subscribers is steadily increasing so is the number of ecommerce companies that are exploring ways to design their own payment gateway system.

Will plastic money completely takeover cash transactions? What do you think? Cash or plastic, what do you prefer?