US-based company WhatsApp has launched credit card payments and services from rival digital payment providers within its application for customers in India. The new payment solutions are set to be available to any firm and company in India that leverages WhatsApp’s business platform, which was developed to mainly serve large enterprises.

Customers who shopped on WhatsApp were also allowed to pay using other popular services, such as Paytm (PAYT.NS), Walmart’s PhonePe (WMT.N), or Alphabet Inc’s Google Pay (GOOGL.O). This was only possible only after the users were redirected outside WhatsApp. Following this announcement, clients will be enabled to make instant money transfers and payments directly within WhatsApp, with new in-app options and offerings for credit cards and debit cards being also available.

The launch also focuses on the process of developing and growing the company’s sales. The WhatsApp Pay clients are set to remain capped in India. At the same time, the company will put no limit on the number of users that are permitted to transfer with businesses on WhatsApp using the other payment methods.

WhatsApp’s recent strategy of development WhatsApp had multiple partnerships and product launches in the last couple of months, covering several different geographic areas around the world. In May 2023, financial infrastructure platform Stripe announced its collaboration with WhatsApp in order to enable Singapore-based businesses and companies to accept payments in WhatsApp chats. The feature was built on the Stripe Connect and the Stripe Checkout tools, allowing both Singapore clients and firms to buy and sell within WhatsApp in a direct and secure manner, without being required to go to a website, carry out the payments in person, or open a different application.

Following this integration, multiple supported payment methods were made available, including debit cards, credit cards, and PayNow, a real-time payment system that was currently popular in the region of Singapore. The option to enable payments and transactions on WhatsApp in Singapore was made available to local businesses that used the WhatsApp Business Platform. Earlier in April 2023, the multiplatform messaging application offered clients in Brazil the capability to pay merchants and traders directly through their chats.

The new feature aimed to improve the overall customer experience, as WhatsApp users were enabled to find their needed and preferred products and pay for them directly in the application. For businesses and merchants, this resulted in increased revenue and conversions, as buyers were no longer required to go to their website, open other applications, or pay in person in order to finish the transaction. .