Online Payments Ecosystem & Payments in India
Recently, an article by Sanjay Goel (of MustSeeIndia, an Indian travel site) on Pluggd.in about Payment Processors in India sparked my interest. The discussion highlighted 2 prominent points for me:
- lack of awareness about existing Indian + global payment options amongst Indian businesses (entrepreneurs, technologists, startups).
- few merchants discussed real features (that they should demand more of) offered by their payment provider; most (and rightfully so in the Indian context) were concerned with pricing and ease of integration.
I thought it would be great to introduce the key players in the online payments ecosystem (also called e-payments or web payments) so everyone understands the differences between a payment gateway, a payment processor and a 3rd party payment platform.
Think Payments, Think India
- Payment Gateways (CCAvenue, EBS, DirecPay) in India currently charge like 3rd party payment platforms but offer no (and limited if any) value added services. Their technology and customer service are both serious painpoints for merchants. Most gateways deflect the blame on to government and RBI policy regulations, which is appropriate in the matter of pricing. However, the same excuse cannot be applied to poor customer service or not investing in technology to offer better availability (no timeout errors) and accurately report transaction statuses.
-Bank processors like ICICI PaySeal, HDFC Bank andAxis Bank (UTI previously) have no amazing service or technology either. In fact, their checklist for a merchant to qualify as their customer is as tedious as their total time to integrate.
Read more at ZaakCo
