Paytm Android POS Device

Author: Karan Sharma

The Noida based giant has launched an all-in-one android POS device for contactless ordering and making payments, for SME’s. The all-in-one android POS will help merchant partners to accept payments through Paytm Wallet, all UPI based apps, debit & credit cards and cash. Besides accepting payments, merchants will also be able to generate GST compliant bills and manage all transactions and settlements through their 'Paytm for Business' app at one go. This device comes at an introductory price of Rs.499 per month on a rental basis and is designed like a phone. This is the first ever android based POS device which is more powerful and have more functionality than a regular Linux based POS device. The firm says its POS machine comes bundled with Paytm's 'Scan to Order' service, which is slowly said to be gaining traction in places like restaurants and takeaway joints.

This product is also expected to make payments easier for logistic players, Kirana stores, and small shopkeepers. Weighing 163 grams, the device is 12mm thick and has a 4.5-inch touch screen. Paytm says the device has a ‘powerful’ processor, ‘all-day’ battery life and an inbuilt camera to scan QR codes and instantly process payment. There is also cloud-based software for billing, payments, and customer management. It can even work with 4G sim cards, Wi-Fi and has Bluetooth connectivity to ensure payments never fails. Paytm says it aims to issue over 2 lakh devices within the next few months. This is expected to generate over 20 million transactions per month. PoS devices for contactless ordering and payments have come into the focus during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, with social distancing norms pushing their adoption. Recently, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, during his monetary policy statement, also talked about a soon-to-be-launched pilot for offline-based digital payments, to increase their adoption in areas with low internet bandwidth. This would be done with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the unified payments interface (UPI), looking to add near-field communication (NFC) capabilities to its payments infrastructure to take on its rivals Visa, MasterCard and another NPCI-owned service Rupay.With the introduction of such device paytm has very cleverly used market penetration with the focus on expanding into B2B market along with giving a boost to SME’s for more effortless transactional services.