Right use cases and ecosystem development key to healthy adoption of mobile wallet in India

Mobile wallet has all the ingredients of being the next big thing in the area of payments.

Mobile wallet is not only about the digital storage of currency but also the ubiquitous experience that it provides customers and merchants.

While some users rely on the convenience factor, others see it a mode to tide over the security concern of online banking.

At the recently held Mobile Techcircle Forum in Mumbai, eminent panelists deliberated on what need to be done to further push the adoption of mobile wallets in the country.

The panel was moderated by Rajat Sood, vice president, General Atlantic.

Amit Lakhotia (VP payments- One97 & Paytm), Pradeep Sampath COO (MMP Mobiwallet Ltd), Sandeep Ghule (co-founder and chief marketing officer-TranServ), Srinivas Nidugondi (SVP and head of mobile financial solutions-Mahindra Comviva) and SP Narayanan (head mCommerce-Idea Cellular) were the participating panelists.

The observations made by the panelists can be summarised as below: Amit Lakhotia, VP payments, One97 & Paytm: We see a lot of use cases at Paytm where the parent would like to give the child Rs 2000-3000 as pocket money, but does not want to share his bank account details. With mobile wallet, the kid can still go and shop online.

Pradeep Sampath, COO, MMP Mobiwallet Ltd (mRupee): The key to success with mobile wallets is to create a robust support ecosystem. You need to look at both ends of the spectrum. Firstly, the merchant needs to accept this instrument and the customer needs to spend. One needs to connect both these ends to propel faster adoption of mobile wallets.

Sandeep Ghule, co-founder and chief marketing officer, TranServ: Our physical wallets typically have three compartments. We carry cash, bank-issued cards and closed group instruments such as gift cards, promo codes and so on. Can I digitise all three components with a mobile phone? When that happens, the entire experience becomes ubiquitous.

SP Narayanan, head mCommerce, Idea Cellular: We all know that there are tremendous advantages in keeping multiple component into a single mobile wallet. However, repeated usage will happen only if mobile wallets help customers overcome certain pain points. Adoption increases the moment usage increases to three times or 10 times a day.

Srinivas Nidugondi, SVP and head of mobile financial solutions, Mahindra Comviva: We are trying to use the mobile wallet or the mobility instrument to holistically enable the consumers for what I call the need assessment to the information discovery to the decision making to making the payment and the post payment experience.That's where the value added stuff would really come in.