Five Things That New Indian Mobile Wallet Companies Should Learn
Why the new mobile wallet services are going to fail…?
Disclaimer: This article reflects my personal opinion. This article is not meant either to promote or to defame any existing mobile wallet service.
P.S. You may find serious grammatical mistakes. Don’t panic — It’s not your mistake — it’s mine. I can’t do anything about it right now.
On a beautiful Sunday morning, I received a message from my friend asking to download a brand new ‘wallet’ app and enter a code after signup. I didn’t care about it — like I didn’t care about any newly launched mobile app in the market.
At 11 a.m. he called me and instructed to download that app. I said okay — and asked him, “why should I download that ‘particular’ app only there are so many — why should I pay a special attention to that app?” He hesitated and after a long pause. He told me that on every referral his e-wallet account will be credited by Rs. 20. I listened him carefully. I cut the call and went ahead to download the app.
After few days I get a new message for downloading an another new mobile wallet app with a code to be inserted after the download. I downloaded it in frustration. And on another day, I received an another message to download an another app and so on…
I was frustrated and I was really fed-up with this silly and same marketing gimmick that each and every new mobile wallet services were doing. They were following each other same gimmick to get downloads and users for their app.
I agree that mobile wallet services have really made our life really easy. But, believe me there are more mobile wallet services in the market than the amount I have in my bank account. Shit!
I hope that after reading this post ‘a’ mobile wallet service will really shift their aim to make innovation rather than doing ‘chutzpah’.
Let’s begin:
1. Acceptance
In India, approximately there are about ~100–150 million who occasionally use the mobile wallet service. Reason: The Acceptance.
These mobile wallet companies have only seen usage of their wallet from a few large merchants such as Uber and Ola (Remember: The usage is driven only due to cashback offers).
The new mobile wallet companies follow same strategy rather than innovating the current scenario. It’s easier to tie-up with large merchants and a great opportunity to earn huge profit from them in comparison to the smaller ones.
But a question arise here: Can a new mobile wallet service drive the usage and growth without the cashback offers? The simple answer is: Yes!
Small merchant outlets are the biggest untapped market which will increase these mobile wallet companies growth and usage. Believe me! You won’t regret it. ;-)
I’m really disappointed when I forget my wallet at my home and I left with no option to pay to the merchant. I always think about when these small retailers will get the benefit of receiving payment from mobile phone. Connect them guys! Provide your solution to them. You’re making the next “billion dollar company” — disrupt or go home.
The mobile wallet usage will surge only when a consumer will see availability of mobile payment on his/her favorite local store.
In place of catching big fish, catch small fishes first. These local and small merchants will help your service to get stable and surge the growth.
2. Internet Speed
No doubt! The usage and users of mobile internet in India is rapidly increasing. But, the slow internet speed is a big concern that mobile wallet companies should think about first. The sky-touching rates and limited data validity of 3G/4G networks make people to rely on lagging 2G internet connection (Fact: I’m one of them).
The slow 2G Internet speed makes the downloading of the application nearly impossible in some areas.
Here comes the dedicated lightweight website in case, when you can’t access the mobile app.
Here is what I like about the Paytm and what new and existing mobile wallet services can learn:
When you visit the paytm, you can clearly see the Paytm wallet link.
On their mobile website:
The mobile website clearly says, “Hello! Your Paytm Wallet is here”. Awesome!
But, wait there’s more…
Paytm wallet dedicated website took few seconds to load. Brilliant!
Here’s paytm wallet’s website in mobile:
Light! Simple! Load faster.
Lessons learnt:
- Think from the customer’s perspective.
- Make dedicated website, the least size app possible for your service.
- Think from every possible way through which you can lure your customers.
- A simple website is enough.
Here is Freecharge.in website and what you should from it:
The website simply show the services you can use but the wallet link isn’t mentioned in the entire website. For the first time visitor visitor like me it’s really impossible to know that there’s a wallet feature hidden. Just log in and it will appear. “WTF!”
The wallet appear after logging in to the Website. It’s same with their mobile website.
Lessons to learn from Freecharge:
- Link all the important services you provide. Users first scan with their eyes. Capture their eyes!
- The site sucks on 2G network. A simpler and lightest version can help your mobile wallet company to boost the usage.
- Don’t build your service to completely rely on “Javascript”. Turn off Javascript and access freecharge’s website.
3. Trust
The growing cases of cyber crimes in the country cause the mistrust among potential wallet users. They prefer to pay via cash over the use of mobile wallet.
Tell your users how secure their wallet is, what preventive measures your company has taken to protect their account and money.
Nobody is going to simply load his/her money on your mobile wallet service until you ensure them: how their money is safe with them.
Create a tutorial video or write a brief blog post to make awareness among the users about your security. If you still fail to achieve an user’s trust. Do your homework properly.
Ask for feedback, ask for doubt from your users.
The trust only build a healthy relationship between an user, a merchant and the mobile wallet. This trust will also surge your service growth and usage.
4. Introduction Video and Proper Website
A few mobile wallet company websites are misleading and confusing.
For example, take a look at Airtel Money website, the website is so confusing that it is nearly impossible to figure out what actually the Website want to convey:
The website lacks “how to use the app” or any video tutorial that instruct how to use it.
While the other mobile wallet websites such as: Momoe, State Bank Buddy, Citi MasterPass, etc. all have an introduction videos or tutorial to show how to use the service.
Here is YPayCash animated video which easily describes how to make payment with their service:
5. Herd Race
These days, cashback offers seems to be the only one method to quickly grow your user base. But, the users acquired via this gimmick aren’t going to stay for a long. Instead of quickly growing your user base look for the prominent way to stable your business.
The second method which I came to know about is that the new mobile wallet companies are giving Rs. 30 to Rs. 50 credited to your wallet if you send Re. 1 to them. Face palm!
Similarly, the user acquired from the above method will not stick to your business for long. They may use your service for a day or so and then leave.
Try to connect with local stores, if you win the local merchants you don’t need such silly gimmick to find an user. The mouth-of-word will do.
Win local merchants first!
I hope that you may have liked this post. The only motive behind this post is to help the new mobile wallet companies the areas should they focus on rather then fucking off their business.
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