This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

FreeCharge And PayTM To Start Wallet On Delivery Services, MobiKwik To Accept Cash

Online wallets are rushing for a slice of the demonetization pie.
Bloomberg via Getty Images

PayTM, Freecharge, MobiKwik and other e-wallet companies are providing new services in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's historic demonetization announcement. After the demonetization of ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes, online wallet providers are in cloud nine and trying to cash in on this unexpected window of opportunity.

This morning, Freecharge, which is owned by Snapdeal, announced a new feature called 'Wallet on Delivery'. This will allow customers pay through the Freecharge wallet instead of cash when an item ordered online from the Snapdeal website arrives at their doorstep.

According to Gadgets 360, the mechanism will work through a PIN number received at the time of the delivery, and the user will have to confirm the payment through the app.

"The launch of Wallet on Delivery is an absolute need of the hour for consumers," Kunal Bahl, CEO of Snapdeal, said. "More than a year ago, we had made a strategic decision to build India's best digital payments platform to offer the fastest and most efficient payments experience in the country."

Many e-commerce sites, such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal have temporarily discontinued

the cash-on-delivery option.

India's number one payment wallet in terms of turnover, PayTM, also announced on Twitter that it is working with courier companies to provide consumers with similar services.

Goodbye, COD. We're working with our courier partners to enable Wallet on Delivery, also known as Paytm on Delivery [POD]

— Paytm (@Paytm) November 10, 2016

The company has also announced that it will hire 10,000 so-called PayTM agents to expand offline point of sales. PayTM is aiming to reach 20 lakh point of payments by the end of the current financial year. The company claims that the traffic on its platform had increased by 435 percent in the first day after Prime Minister Modi's announcement on Tuesday.

Another big player in the market, MobiKwik, has taken a different route. The company, which saw 7x transaction growth in the early hours of Wednesday, will accept cash from consumers to add money to the MobiKwik wallet. The online wallet earlier claimed that it will also accept the denominations of ₹500 and ₹1,000 until 30 December 2016. It is even offering to collect the cash from consumers' homes. But now it has taken the stance that due to confusion in the currency acceptance rules they would be just accepting lower denominations.

Almost all the online wallets are seeing a surge in traffic, and many will come up with new offers. The coming weeks will tell if these e-payment systems really take off.

MUMMA NU DOUBLE DOSE

12 Indian Cocktails To Spice Up The Winters

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.