For Indian exporters, Australia has been a promising market showing a doubling in merchandise trade (8th April 2022 – Businessworld.in) from $10.7Bn in 2020 to nearly $23Bn in 2021. With strong trade links, an active and wealthy Indian diaspora, and strong tailwinds behind cross-border exports, there is an enormous opportunity for Indian businesses looking to expand their market presence in Australia.
In the past, accepting payments from Australia-based customers meant relying almost exclusively on the use of credit card payments. Recent Data from the Reserve bank of Australia, however, shows that credit card usage has been on the decline since 2018. In 2021, credit card usage declined by 3.1%. On the other hand, Newer Online Payment Methods that enable direct bank transfers have grown multifold in the past 3 years. Indian businesses have struggled to provide such online payment options and instruments to Australian customers.
Source: Reserve Bank of Australia Data
To solve this problem, Razorpay has partnered with POLi. POLi is a trusted Australian and New Zealand payments network, which enables its customers down under to make payments directly from their bank accounts without needing to use credit or debit cards. With our new POLi integration, Razorpay customers will be able to accept payments from customers across Australia and New Zealand seamlessly.
What is POLi?
POLi is Australia’s leading real-time online debit payment method. It offers its users the ability to pay from their internet banking directly, offering a secure alternative to traditional payment methods such as cards and digital wallets such as PayPal. POLi counts major businesses such as Jetstar, Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand, and Sportsbet as its customers. The company POLi Payments is a fully-owned business of Australia Post.
POLi has integrated with 23 banks in ANZ and potentially covers ~95% of Australians and New Zealanders. Over 40% of Australians do not have access to credit cards while a vast majority have access to Netbanking. Businesses thus prefer accepting payments via POLi as it gives them significant access to customers who prefer to debit funds for purchases. Also, as opposed to cards, all transactions via POLi are processed only once the end customer has used dual-factor authentication. There are thus, no card network-driven chargebacks or forced refunds via this method, and disputes are handled directly between end-customers and businesses.
Related Read: What are the Different Types of Digital Wallets?
How does POLi work?
POLi works by connecting customers at an e-commerce checkout with their internet banking. POLi’s software enables customers to log in to their internet banking seamlessly during checkout and pre-populates the payment details, making the transaction smooth and reducing customer abandonment and payments friction at checkout. Since the transaction leverages their own internet banking account, they also have the reassurance that their payments and information are secured.
End-Customer Payment Flow with POLi:
- The end-customer chooses POLi as a payment method on their Razorpay checkout
- They get redirected to the POLi website and are asked to choose their bank
- Customers will then securely log in to their bank using their credentials
- The payment gets completed if credentials match and the transaction is confirmed by the customer
What are bank transfers?
Earlier, routing money directly from your bank account was difficult and involved considerable effort. However, with the digitisation of money transfers, internet banking, and bank transfers have gained in popularity and have begun to overshadow credit and debit cards as methods of payment. The growth and popularity of UPI in India, Trustly in Europe, and POLi in Australia is a testament to the changing nature of customer behaviour.
POLi essentially bridges the gap between business checkouts and internet banking interfaces for customers. By enabling paying customers to leverage their internet banking to complete e-commerce transactions, POLi makes it easier for customers to pay and trust the payment. Further, internet banking reduces the logistical hassle of matching incoming payments with orders, making it substantially easier for exporters to get started on fulfilment and not waste time on manual tracking and reconciliation of payments to discover orders.
No Australian account or legal entity needed!
International transactions and exports usually come with large amounts of painful paperwork, which is a source of unnecessary friction and frustration for Indian businesses. With Razorpay and POLi’s partnership, you will be able to access the POLi payment method without any extra paperwork or compliance. No foreign bank accounts will be necessary to accept payments from Australia and New Zealand – payments via POLi will be routed to your account via Razorpay from your customer’s bank accounts.
Benefits of POLi for your business
“Now sell to millions of Australian and New Zealander customers who don’t use credit cards with POLi and Razorpay!”
- Sell in Australia and New Zealand with ease
Enter and sell to markets and consumers with low credit card penetration and use the latest online methods and instruments to collect payments
- No chargebacks!
Avoid painful unnecessary chargebacks from card networks with an authorized bank transfer
- Strong coverage
POLi enables users from 23 of the region’s biggest banks – 16 top banks from Australia and 7 top New Zealand banks – to make payments seamlessly
- Higher order value
With higher limits and greater customer ease of paying directly through their accounts, watch your average sale to customers from the region rise!
- Safer than credit cards
With no chargebacks (unlike credit and debit card payments), this is safer for your business; and with bank account authorizations, safer for your customers too!
What’s next?
After adding Trustly and now POLi to its checkout, Razorpay is working to make it easier for Indian businesses to essay their global growth story. We are now focusing on enabling other under-served market segments – such as B2B exporters, adding new payment methods to make accepting international payments easier for Indian MSMEs, and making international payments safer through rigorous, technology-driven risk checks.
If you are looking for new international markets to take your business to the next, global, level – consider Razorpay! If you are an existing Razorpay user, check your dashboard for easy enablement of international transactions.
Read more: https://razorpay.com/accept-international-payments/
