MobiKwik has partnered with WHSmith to facilitate mobile wallet payments for your offline purchases! In this new development, over 17 million MobiKwik users can now use their MobiKwik wallet to pay for purchases made at brick and mortar stores or “MobiKwick node”
The country’s leading mobile wallet company, MobiKwik enables mobile recharges, utility bill payments, DTH recharges and even e-payments to retailers like Café Coffee Day, PVR, Dominos, Myntra, Pizza Hut, Jabong, MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip etc.
Partnering with UK’s high end retailer, WHSmith (or commonly referred to as Smith’s) is hoping to gain some ground in India attributing to sales generated by MobiKwik users. Smith’s is best known for stationery, books and newsagents and has over 55 retail outlets in Delhi and Mumbai. It also runs a few kiosks at airports in cities other than Delhi and Mumbai. Any purchase made in these stores can be paid using a MobiKwik wallet and the user can even refill their wallet in the store.
On 26th June, the startup also confirmed BigBazaar agreeing to pilot the idea of using Mobile wallet for purchases made in its stores. Currently, BigBazaar outlets in Mumbai and Delhi NCR are implementing this model and if the crowd takes it well, the model is set to take off in other cities as well.
The partnership is expected to make the whole shopping experience “cash-less” and “card-less” making the smartphone the only pre-requisite for shopping. The vendors that are e-payment friendly are only around 0.7 million which is where tie-ups like this will pull in a big chunk of local grocery stores. Paying for offline purchases using your online wallet will make your smartphone a POS device.
Mr Bipin Preet Singh, founder of MobiKwik wants to revolutionize the whole payment system where carrying a wallet in your phone does more than your wallet in your hand. On the occasion of the partnership, Mr Singh was quoted saying, “We are proud to play a leading role in mainstreaming mobile wallets in India by making them accessible at offline outlets. 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. We invite customers to visit their nearest WHSmith stores and shop safely and conveniently using their MobiKwik wallets.”
Just as we know how smartphones are now commanding more traffic on sites and are close to taking over a lion’s share in attracting more internet subscribers than broadband, it’s the best time to launch an initiative like this. Speaking on their association with MobiKwik, the CEO of TNSI Retail (WHSmith), Mr Arun Barathi said, “Mobile wallets are the next big game changers in the payments space and offers great possibilities for retail in India. They fasten the payment process as well as make it more convenient and secure. 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”.
MobiKwik’s vision in the near future is to create a 100 million user base that can shop using their mobile wallets with any retail shop be it online or offline wishing to bring in at least 200,000 vendors as against it’s current 17 million users connected to around 50,000 retailers. MobiKwik has just raised $25 million (series B funding) and it’s investors include Sequoia Capital, Cisco, American Express and Tree Line Asia. Sure the investors are convinced of the huge potential that MobiKwik will tap into.
