Notwithstanding the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) action on Paytm’s payments bank unit, around 59% of merchants say they continue to use Paytm and see no immediate impact from the measures, a survey from Datum Intelligence showed on Tuesday.
Gurugram-based business consulting and services company surveyed 2,000 merchants using payment applications for accepting payments across 12 cities. The duration of the survey is between February 7 and February 15. The survey showed that while 13% merchants are switching to other payment applications, 21% are waiting for more information.
The survey showed that 76% of merchants use Paytm for accepting payments followed by 41% for PhonePe, 33% for GooglePay and 18% BharatPe. Paytm is the preferred app for 58% of the merchants surveyed followed by 23% for PhonePe, 12% for Google Pay and 3% for BharatPe.
A key reason for the higher adoption among merchants is the fact that a Paytm representative reached out to them following the RBI’s measures.
In fact, around 72% merchants said that a Paytm representative reached out to them after the RBI decision, and 71% of merchants are feeling confident in using Paytm for payments after the troubled fintech’s representative reached out to assure them. On the other hand, 11% are less confident about using Paytm for payments and around 14% are still looking for more information.
Also, around 39% merchants surveyed are using Paytm Soundbox for accepting payments, 5% of merchants have taken a loan using Paytm app and around 90% of them are already reached out by a Paytm representative after the RBI decision. “Overall, the impact is limited on the merchant business and Paytm is engaging with merchants to reduce the damage and merchants are also waiting before deciding on alternatives,” Datum Intelligence said in a report.
On January 31, RBI asked Paytm Payments Bank to halt many of its operations after February 29. Subsequently, this deadline was extended to March 15 in a bid to give customers and merchants sufficient time to migrate their accounts from the payments bank.