New Delhi: The online payment service Amazon Pay, is planning to launch 'scan and pay' facility at the neighbor stores, as told by three people to Livemint on the condition of anonymity. Amazon has already launched its payments service in department store chain Shoppers Stop, in which it has a 5 per cent stake. It is expected that soon it will set up the required infrastructure at grocery chain More as well.One of the three people cited above told the publication “Since Amazon has a stake in these two chains, it is starting offline payments with these stores."

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He further added “Subsequently, it will start reaching out to merchants, which would take more time as it is in the unorganized sector".On confirming the development, the company's spokesperson said, "We have begun introducing Amazon smile code, a new way for our customers to shop and pay at physical stores like Shoppers Stop, among others. Customers will soon find Amazon smile codes in neighborhood retail stores, where they can scan and pay for their purchases seamlessly." On the condition of anonymity, an industry executive told the financial daily "In online transactions, there is no customer loyalty. The idea behind offline payments is to also bring a customer online and, through this, they may also build user loyalty and create a moat, which is why all players are turning to offline."

Here it is to be noted that according to a report by daily, as per the industry estimates, there are about three lakh offline, QR-based mobile transactions daily which are enabled by Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay. In November 2018, Paytm claimed that out of 9.5 million offline merchant base six million accept Paytm UPI. However, Paytm was the first to install QR codes at offline stores. Meanwhile, PhonePe claims that it has its merchant acceptance network across 100 cities and is planning to expand its presence in 500 cities by the end of 2019. Head of unorganized business at PhonePe, Vivek Lohcheb told Livemint, "The pace at which we are growing, we will catch up soon and also give tough competition to any other players that are coming into this space. We have been acquiring close to seven lakh merchants or stores per month."

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