Economic uncertainty in the lockdown has seen a payment paradigm shift in e-commerce where buy now pay later (BNPL) has emerged as one of the prefered payment options. Riding high on the attractiveness of this micro-credit payment mode, Simpl has on-boarded 1500 new merchants on its network in the last three months, in partnership with Razorpay.

The partnership with Razorpay will allow Simpl to expand its service offering to a wide array of merchants. D2C (Direct to Consumer) merchants like Matte, Yoga Bar, Sleepy Owl Coffee are in the list of 1500 new merchants to join the network, bringing the total count of merchants offering Simpl up to 2500. This increase in the number of merchants is indicative of the shift in the adoption of BNPL from the consumers' end.

Congratulating Simpl on reaching yet another milestone, Amitabh Tewary, Chief Innovation Officer of Razorpay said "There's a very popular saying at Razorpay - Everything I do, I do for the customer. To be associated with Simpl for their 1500 new partner businesses gives us immense delight more so because of how we are together making digital payments user-friendly and accessible for customers." He added, "With this association, I am looking forward to continuing to enable businesses with a seamless payment experience."

Consumer sentiment has changed due to the economic slowdown with job losses and pay cuts during the global pandemic. According to reports, buyers are wary of spending money and are opting for micro-credit options. The other facet of the product that can be attributed to its increasing popularity has to do with its consumer empowerment. Consumers are embracing the idea of micro-credit for small-ticket purchases. And e-commerce players in India are looking for new financial services to attract and retain customers by offering them a micro-credit option where a consumer can buy now and pay later without having to pay any interest if paid within the agreed time.

Simpl CEO NItya Sharma confirmed the news, stating "We're excited to be partnering with Razorpay to bring the best payment experience to our users and merchants. It is yet another step in our effort to simplify payments and build trust between our merchants and customers."

Speaking about the rise in BNPL users in the lockdown period, Nitya further said, “At Simpl, we are seeing a 40 per cent increase in transactions for essentials, and about 40-45 per cent increase in transactions for medicines as compared to pre-COVID days. There has been an increase in cart conversions by 70 per cent for our merchants with payment failures at near-zero.”

Further, speaking about the current payment trend in ecommerce, Sharma added, “Online grocery and essential shopping is becoming the new normal with almost 30-40 per cent increase in the number of new offline to online users trying out services from online hyperlocal merchants compared to pre-lockdown months.”