In a move that may end the era of cash on delivery (CoD) forever, mobile wallets Paytm and Freecharge today launched ‘Wallet on Delivery’ (WoD), which will allow users to pay on delivery by using their e-wallet.
Paytm in an official tweet said: “Goodbye, COD. We’re working with our courier partners to enable Wallet on Delivery, also known as Paytm on Delivery [POD].”
“The company is in talks with various ecommerce and logistics companies to enable POD,” company CFO Madhur Deora told. “With POD, a courier boy can just wear a QR code tag and a shopper can pay by Paytm when a parcel arrives on the doorstep,” he added.
Wallets such as Freecharge, Paytm and Mobikwik are used extensively by users in India now to conveniently pay for utilities like cab rides, metro, phone recharges, electricity, gas, petrol, DTH and lots more in India. In a bid to curb black money, Narendra Modi on 8th November, 2016 announced that the existing Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes will cease to be legal tender.
This made all companies including Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Uber, Foodpanda, Yumist restrict cash on delivery options from immediate effect. Like Paytm, Snapdeal also launched a similar payment on delivery service.
“The launch of Wallet on Delivery is an absolute need of the hour for consumers. 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,” said Kunal Bahl, CEO and Co-founder of Snapdeal, which owns Freecharge.
“The launch of this new feature by FreeCharge shortly after the announcement of the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes demonstrates our speed of execution in ensuring consumers’ needs are met in real time. We are delighted to continue our contribution to the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision to build a cashless society,” he added.
In last 24 hours, e-wallets have witnessed a massive growth in their balance and downloads. Paytm reported an overwhelming 435 percent increase in overall traffic and registered a 200 percent hike in number of app downloads. On the other hand, Freecharge reported a sharp 12X overnight jump in the average wallet balance as consumers loaded up their wallets.
The upside in downloads and adoption is also likely to heighten investor interest and valuations for fintech startups in India. With the help of WoD, online shoppers will now be able to make payments with the help of e-wallets at the time of delivery. This will effectively reduce the effort needed to handle cash, thereby reducing cost for the e-commerce companies. Almost 60 percent of the e-commerce retail happens on CoD basis in India.
There is a very high cost of returns for all CoD orders. Returns are also likely to reduce as a result when people turn to paying upfront or digitally. Non-CoD buyers in India are generally less prone to return products unless they are not faulty. Thefts and fraud of high value item cash received from buyer will also reduce.
Source: moneycontrol
