Kishore Biyani snubs Paytm, only Future Pay to be accepted at Easyday stores

• Easyday stores across the country will now accept digital payments only through its own app – Future Pay.
• A circular put up in Easyday stores for customers said that the store will not be accepting Paytm anymore, as per management orders.
• The push for Future Pay comes at a time when the company is also focusing on a greater digital push, having partnered with Amazon in January 2020.

Kishore Biyani-led Future Group which runs BigBazaar and Easyday stores across the country, will now accept digital payments only through its own app – Future Pay.

A circular put up in Easyday stores for customers said that the store will not be accepting Paytm anymore, as per management orders.

Future group had launched its digital wallet – Future Pay in October 2016 with loyalty programmes for consumers. It also has a feature called ‘Price Match’ where customers can compare prices of a product across all retail stores. If the lowest price is not what BigBazaar offers, it will adjust the amount and refund the consumer.

However, the app has not made the splash it intended to. The Future Pay app on Google Playstore has around 10 million downloads. Unlike Paytm which processes payments across platforms with a single QR code, Future Pay does not offer cross-functionality as of yet, and can only be accessed at Future Group stores.

The push for Future Pay comes at a time when the company is also focusing on a greater digital push. In January 2020, e-commerce giant Amazon signed a long-term business agreement with Future Group. As per the deal, Amazon will become Future Retail’s authorized online sales channel. It had already launched its online service with Amazon across 22 centres.

The group’s Big Bazaar and FoodHall will also be available online, soon.

The competition in the grocery and food retail segment is heating up. It’s not just the startups like BigBasket, Grofers, MilkBasket but also bigwigs like Amazon, Flipkart that are indulging in the sector.

Another big threat comes from Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio which has already done a soft launch for JioMart – its online grocery retail offering. According to reports, Reliance has also entered the UPI payments segment, while it already has a wallet platform called JioMoney.

Meanwhile, Future Retail had posted a 15% fall in profits in the third quarter of FY20. It saw its profits go down to ₹170.73 crore from ₹201.43 in the same quarter the previous year.

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