More than 17m users of Indian mobile wallet service MobiKwik will be able to make in-store payments at 55 WHSmith India stationery and book stores, the first time the service has been available for payments in physical locations.

“WHSmith India has stores in Delhi and Mumbai, most of them in high footfall locations such as metro stations,” MobiKwik says.

“Each WHSmith store will act as a ‘MobiKwik Node’, where MobiKwik users will be able to load money into their mobile wallet as well as pay through it for their favourite products. WHSmith is the first of a series of exclusive tie-ups that MobiKwik aims to do this year.”

How it works

“A user walks into a WHSmith India store, places an order for the products he or she wants and expresses the desire to pay with the MobiKwik Wallet,” the company explained to NFC World.

“The retailer asks for the user’s mobile number registered with MobiKwik. The user shares their mobile number and the retailer enters it into the point-of-sale terminal.

“The user then receives a one time password (OTP) on his or her mobile via SMS and shares it with the retailer. The retailer enters the OTP into the point-of-sale terminal and the money from the user’s wallet is deducted and the payment is done.”

The end for POS

“The current process involves upgrading point-of-sale terminals,” MobiKwik added. “Eventually, we believe POS machines will become redundant and smartphones will become the default device for payment acceptance. India has around 30m to 40m small and medium businesses but only 1.1m deployed POS machines. The number of merchants, online and offline, who accept electronic payments is even less and stands at around 0.7m.

“MobiKwik imagines a future where even local stores in India will accept payments made with the MobiKwik Wallet, with the retailers’ smartphone functioning as effectively as a POS machine.”

Game changers

“Mobile wallets are the next big game changers in the payments space and offer great possibilities for retail in India,” says Arun Barathi, CEO of WHSmith India franchise owner Travel News Services India.

“As a retail chain that targets the youth, we have always believed in adopting the latest technology to improve customer experience.

“We believe enabling mobile wallet-based payments has the potential to significantly impact sales, with thousands of MobiKwik users shopping with us due to the speed and safety involved.”

“Mobile payment has considerable potential to disrupt Indian retail and we aim to create many more such partnerships for mobile wallets to replace cash and cards,” adds MobiKwik founder and CEO Bipin Preet Singh.

“We are proud to play a leading role in mainstreaming mobile wallets in India by making them accessible at offline outlets.”