Flipkart to Enable Transactions With India’s UPI Instant Payments System

Indian eCommerce marketplace Flipkart has launched a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) handle to enhance its digital payment offerings by adding India’s popular instant payments system.

The new Flipkart UPI allows users to set up their own UPI handle for transactions, both online and offline, and both within and outside the Flipkart marketplace, the company said in a Sunday (March 3) press release.

“At Flipkart, we are committed to delivering the best-in-class commerce experience to customers by offering safe and convenient payment options along with a wide array of awards and benefits such as Supercoins, Brand Vouchers and others,” Dheeraj Aneja, senior vice president, FinTech and Payments Group at Flipkart, said in the release. “Furthermore, Flipkart UPI underscores our dedication to shaping a digitally empowered society and reaffirms our role as a leading catalyst in India’s digital evolution.”

On the Flipkart app, users can deploy Flipkart UPI to pay for eCommerce transactions, Scan and Pay to UPI ID, recharges, bill payments, and any other product or service, according to the release.

Following the launch of this offering, Flipkart will add loyalty features that will be made available when making UPI payments, the release said.

Flipkart UPI will initially be available to Android users, per the release.

The payment option will be powered by Axis Bank, which already partners with Flipkart on co-branded credit cards, according to the release.

“Axis Bank has always been at the forefront of extending multiple payments flows of UPI to its customers,” Sanjeev Moghe, president and head, Cards & Payments at Axis Bank, said in the release. “We continue to scale our growth in UPI with partnerships and innovations.”

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that 55% of consumers in India paid for their most recent digital retail purchase with UPI.

In addition, 55% of consumers in the country used a digital wallet to pay for their latest retail purchase, according to the “2023 Global Digital Shopping Index: India Edition,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Cybersource collaboration.

The report also found that India accounts for 46% of the world’s real-time payments and logs more digital transactions than any other nation.