QR Code: Convenient and safe mode of digital payments

Across industries, India has seen a significant shift in the way transactions are conducted over the last few years. This shift has been made possible by emerging technologies such as IMPS, internet banking, mobile wallets, card payments, QR codes, tap-and-pay, etc. Economic factors, government policies, smartphone proliferation, increasing internet usage, and more, have propelled customers to discover the benefits of digital transactions.made possible by emerging technologies such as IMPS, internet banking, mobile wallets, card payments, QR codes, tap-and-pay, etc., government policies, smartphone proliferation, increasing internet usage, and more, have propelled customers to discover the benefits of digital transactions.

Accelerated usage of QR with COVID-19

Among the biggest drivers of the adoption of digital payments has been the pandemic of 2020. COVID-19 is a game-changer for Indian financial payments, imposing new restrictions on both customers and businesses while redefining the way India pays. As a result of strict protocols such as social distancing, safety measures, lockdowns, curfews, and more, retailers across the board now offer digital payment options to customers who prefer to stay at home and make payments via their mobile phones. Despite the market’s recovery in the second half of last year, safety concerns remained.

There has been a revolution in the last 12-14 months towards a digital economy backed by contactless payments. With digital payments no longer just an urban phenomenon, digital payments have been adopted rapidly not just in tier-1 cities, but also in tier-2, tier-3, and tier-4 towns and cities. In contrast to the trend before COVID, digital payments are on the rise, irrespective of age bracket.

In the new normal, dependence on digital payments has found its way into e-commerce, malls, and larger supermarkets as well as small neighborhood shops. As a result of the lockdown, a resurgence of customer demand was observed in nearby retail kiranas or grocery stores across India. As billions of people were shut inside their homes due to safety concerns and e-commerce struggled to meet the sudden surge in demand, people turned to their trusted kirana shops for essential goods and services. As a result of these changes, smaller store owners and local marts adopted trusted digital payment methods, the most common of which is the QR code.

What is a QR code?

A QR code was developed in 1994 by Masahiro Hara of Denso Wave, a Japanese company. It was originally designed to store data about products and inventory; however, QR codes have evolved into a payment system across a variety of countries. For the past few years, QR codes have played a key role in India’s growth of digital payments. From Digital India in 2015, demonetisation in 2016, rising usage of mobile wallets and UPI, and now, the pandemic, there have been many drivers for the adoption of digital payments. However, QR code remains to be the most popular one.

 As a result of QR codes’ benefits, they have seen fast adoption worldwide, including in Asia.

• Paying with cash can be troublesome due to the availability of change, wear and tear of cash notes, etc.
• Easy to set up with little hardware investment
• Payments made in a transparent and secure manner
• Ensures customer delight and convenience by being simple and easy to use
• Eliminates the hassle of rounding off prices when initiating a transaction
• Provides merchants with a variety of delivery options, including home delivery, by allowing instant payments
• No transaction fees for UPI payments via QR code

Demonetisation led to the first wave of QR adoption, but the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated its adoption in offline retail in India. There is no doubt that digital payments are the proverbial need of the hour. Additionally, QR codes can be used to digitize small businesses, bringing retail merchants into the fintech ecosystem.

Jvm Pay QR Code leads the change 

Jvm Pay is a merchant-focused payments platform that offers merchants a single QR code to accept UPI payments across a range of apps, with no fee. Our platform was the First to launch an interoperable UPI QR, an innovative product designed with merchants in mind. The Jvm Pay platform allows merchants to sign up and receive payments instantly in their bank accounts.

Additionally, based on the payments flowing via UPI QR, merchants can apply for business loans at competitive rates. These loans do not require collateral and can be applied for on the Jvm Pay app.

JvmPay currently has a network of over 6 million merchants in over 100 cities. Our goal remains to become India’s largest B2B financial services provider that will serve as a one-stop shop for all Indian merchants.