November 8th will be remembered the world over for more reasons that the US Presidential Elections – what with the Indian Prime Minister leading from the front in making the demonetisation announcement towards a more transparent economy.
This move of demonetising the OHD notes of Rs 500 & Rs 1000 has been one of the most impactful moves announced by any country the world over. Given this scale and swiftness of the move, it is only to be expected that in a democracy that we operate in, there would be naysayers and counter arguments to this decision. That in essence, is what makes India the nation that it is.
While there are various objectives to this move, the need to drive a cashless and electronic mode of transactions across our economy, that has always been a cash based transactional economy is also one key aspect.
While there are various operational aspects of this demonetisation drive that has caused hardship across India, it is to be seen in the light of the fact that the Indian consumer has largely come out on the roads (pun intended ) – by queuing up in an organised manner at the Bank Branches.
The Indian Retail ecosystem has been the bulwark of the touchpoint of consumers for their essential needs. This retail segment is arguably the largest employer in Indian services – and does warrant its place in this context in India. The Indian retail ecosystem is clocking 12% CAGR on its current size of USD 600 Billion. The Retail sector with a significant 15% contribution to the GDP ( PWC statistics), does play a significant role in this large demonetisation drive and making the electronic mode of payment transactions effective.
After the focused efforts to increase acceptance of credit cards and debit cards by consumers across organised retail, the next wave of growing focus and acceptance is the Prepaid Cards of Retail Chains. This has also been a strategic drive by organised retail sector to get the consumer base to partake in the Fintech revolution in India.
It is pertinent to observe that Indian retailers have proactively cranked up significantly to take on the need of this hour. Many leading retail chains have taken the initiative to grow the convenience factor for their consumers.
With the crunch of High denomination notes due to this shift from the old notes to the new notes, some impactful efforts by organised retail sector to enhance the shopping experience of the Indian consumers and alleviate any hardships on cash based transactions.
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Wedding Season Gifting
The top 150 leading brands & retailers have launched & scaled visibility of their Prepaid Gift Cards for providing the choice to consumers to handle their required gifting needs this wedding season. These Prepaid Cards have been made available across more than 500+ towns & cities in Tier1, Tier2, Tier3, Tier4 towns of India. Wedding related gifting this season will see a trending shift to Retailer specific Gift Cards from Cash based Gifting – due to these efforts of the brands & retail chains. In this light, leading brands have enhanced their Gift Card Portfolio to provide options for consumers from Rs 50 onwards to a value of Rs 50,000 or more. These Gift Cards for wedding based gifting are available in wedding occasion based packaging and envelopes. This has seen an offtake by consumers to shift from gifting cash in envelopes to Gift Cards of brands of their choice. Gifting via Gift Cards of Rs 501, Rs 1001, Rs 2001 or any auspicious amount is speedily made available at the Stores and also at online platforms for instant digital delivery across India.
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Grocery Shopping Needs
Consumers feeling the crunch of cash mode of payment for their grocery needs across markets in these times are being supported via the Prepaid Cards launched by leading supermarket brands across all their stores in India. The Prepaid cards are available for purchase across the counters of the supermarkets – and can also be topped up easily from these counters. Additionally, the Grocery related Prepaid cards are available for purchase online from Prepaid & Gift Card sites like Woohoo. This is available for consumers by national Supermarket and Hypermarket chains like Spencers, Hypercity and Godrej Natures Basket.
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Advantages of Retail Gift Cards
Branded Prepaid cards can be purchased and given onward to friends, family members or colleagues very easily with relatively minimal KYC norms. These Prepaid Cards are tracked and managed in a safe and secure manner and can be used by the bearer smoothly at the brand stores for their own purchase needs. The Prepaid cards can be purchased from stores across India and handed over to the recipients for their use without fear of misuse.
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Enabling the needy to shop & Spend
In likely Instances over the next few weeks, if old parents or family members are not able to stand in long queues anywhere in India, they can be aided by children purchasing the Prepaid Cards from the stores or even online from specialist providers like Woohoo giving them these Prepaid cards for their essential shopping needs.
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Increased Distribution Spread of Gift Cards
Prepaid Cards of more than 250 popular retailers have been launched and made available for consumers to easily purchase across online shopping destinations like Woohoo, EBay, Amazon, Snapdeal, Indiatimes, Nearbuy, Grofers, Rediff. This width of distribution availability enables the speedy purchase and usage at the brand stores in lieu of cash mode of payments across retailers.
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Catch Them Young
In these times of cash crunch, the retail Prepaid Cards can be availed by parents to get their children to spend at their chosen set of retail stores to enhance the financial freedom of children in their needs for entertainment with Prepaid Cards for Movies, Bowling Alleys, Sports Events, Dining. These Prepaid cards are usable by the children in a safe and secure mode to also instil financial discipline and learnings. Established players like PVR Cinemas, Just Books, Landmark, Crossword, PVR BluO, Dominos, Pizza Hut, KFC have made their Prepaid Cards available for the needs for parents to get their children to spend smartly.
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Healthcare and Hospitals
The need for cash is felt in healthcare even in top cities and towns for long. This is being addressed by Prepaid Cards available for services by Pharmacies and Hospitals. In this context, consumers across India can avail of the Prepaid cards by national providers like Apollo Pharmacy that enable repeat needs for medicine purchases to be done in an electronic-cashless manner. Fortis Hospitals has launched a Prepaid Card Program that can be used to avail of their services across the Hospital.
The collective efforts of the India Retail sector to reinforce the Prepaid Card revolution that is already clocking 300% annual growth – will see an additional inclusion of 5 million new consumers shifting from cash mode to Prepaid mode of transactions by end of the year.
These proactive measures taken by the organised retail sector to drive the Prepaid Card acceptance does behove well to get the Indian consumer to participate wholeheartedly in this Prepaid Card Fintech Revolution being witnessed across Indian payment ecosystem.
Author: Pratap TP (CMO, Qwikcilver Solutions Pvt Ltd)
