For global businesses looking to expand into India, understanding how to receive payments efficiently is critical. India’s payments ecosystem is dominated by mobile-first users and instant payment methods such as UPI (Unified Payments Interface). Receiving money from India to the US is not just about currency conversion; it’s about optimizing for speed, transparency, and customer trust.
This article explores the most effective ways International businesses can accept payments from Indian customers while minimizing friction and maximizing conversions.
Understanding Payments from India
India’s digital payment landscape is dominated by UPI, which handles over 16 billion transactions per month and accounts for more than 80% of digital payments (IBEF, 2024). Local debit cards (like RuPay), credit cards, and net banking are also widely used. For international businesses, it is crucial to understand that Indian customers expect fast, local, and frictionless payment experiences without multiple hops or redundant inputs.
If your payment process feels ‘international or ‘foreign’, requiring multiple steps, unfamiliar gateways, or foreign currency displayed at checkout, it can result in abandoned carts.
| Did you know: Reports indicate that 50–60% of Indian online shoppers abandon checkout if it feels slow or complicated, with every extra 10 seconds at checkout potentially reducing conversions by 7%. |
INR Pricing: Why Local Currency Matters
Displaying prices in Indian Rupees (INR) is not optional; it is strategic and absolutely necessary in order for customers to trust you. Customers are more likely to complete a purchase when they see prices in their own currency. Pricing in USD or other foreign currencies introduces uncertainty and often leads to hidden FX fees, which reduce trust and increase disputes.
For a ₹1,000 purchase via a foreign gateway, Indian banks may add 3–5% forex and cross-border fees. The customer ends up paying ₹1,020–₹1,050 — more than what was shown.
This breaks trust, delays decision-making, and often leads to disputes.
Using INR pricing ensures that what the customer sees is exactly what they pay. It eliminates surprises, reduces cart abandonment, and fosters the trust necessary for cross-border transactions.
UPI and Indian Payment Methods: The Fast Lane
UPI payments clear instantly, unlike traditional card payments, which may require foreign authorization and can fail due to cross-border restrictions. Integrating UPI, RuPay, and local net banking into your checkout ensures you cater to the majority of Indian consumers.
The fact that more than 80% of digital payments happen via UPI tells us how loved UPI is in India.
Using tokenization and secure gateways, businesses can offer one-click payments, allowing returning customers to pay instantly without re-entering card details or CVV codes. This seamless experience significantly reduces the checkout time — often from minutes to under 10 seconds — boosting conversion rates while maintaining security standards compliant with Indian regulations
How to Receive Money from India to the US
To receive funds easily from India, here’s what global businesses must consider:
1. Partner with a Payment Aggregator that enables seamless Cross-Border transactions
Choose a partner like Razorpay that allows international businesses to:
✅ Collect payments in INR locally in India
✅ Settle funds in USD (or any global currency)
✅ Go live without setting up a legal entity in India
This removes hidden FX fees, ensures transparent pricing, and eliminates the complexity of establishing and maintaining local operations in India.
- Choose a Partner That Handles Currency Conversion for You
For many global businesses, pricing in USD/EUR is non-negotiable. It keeps accounting simple and revenue reporting consistent.
But Indian customers expect to pay in INR and see exactly what they will be charged.
The smart approach is to partner with a payments provider that:
✅ Automatically converts USD/EUR → INR at checkout
✅ Shows Indian customers their exact payable amount
✅ Manages FX rates and markup transparently
This ensures:Customers pay in a familiar local currency, Businesses receive funds in their preferred settlement currency, and businesses avoid all the operational lift of managing pricing tables and FX volatility
By partnering with Razorpay, global businesses get INR collections with best-in-industry success rates, settlements in currency of their choice, automated FX conversion, and a transparent checkout Indian customers trust.
📌 Put simply: Indian users enjoy a local checkout, while your finance team gets global payouts.
2. Work with a Partner that Handles Compliance from Day 1
India is a fairly regulated market with guidelines like PACB, LRS, sandbox approvals, and evolving UPI rules.
Rather than investing months in understanding this ecosystem, choose a partner that:
- is compliant out of the box
- manages all required approvals and reporting
- keeps you aligned as regulations evolve
So that your entry into India is faster and risk-free.
3. Offer India-Preferred Payment Methods
Supporting UPI, RuPay, and other Indian payment methods helps International businesses reduce failed transactions and avoid cross-border friction. Customers can pay using the apps and bank rails they already trust. This results in higher conversions, fewer abandoned carts, and better repeat purchase rates.
Razorpay offers access to 100+ payment methods with just one integration across- both one-time and recurring.
4. Deliver a Checkout experience that feels Local
Indian users expect a familiar and mobile-optimized payment journey.
With Razorpay’s Magic Checkout, you get:
- Auto-filled customer details
- Saved cards/tokenization for 1-click payments
- Instant UPI flows
The result: checkout completion time drops from minutes to seconds → improving conversions significantly.
5. Ensure Global, Always-On Support
Cross-border payments need business-critical reliability. Having a partner with 24×7 support across time zones means:
- Customer issues are resolved quickly
- Revenue isn’t blocked by downtime
- Smoother merchant operations even during peak demand
With Razorpay, you also get round-the-clock support and dedicated account managers, ensuring that your business has expert assistance at every step, no matter where you are in the world.
Conclusion
Winning in India requires more than a cross-border transfer flow. The businesses that scale fastest localize checkout, price in INR, and offer UPI and other native payment options that customers already trust. The payoff is higher success rates, faster adoption, and accelerated revenue growth.
That’s why global brands like Airbnb and Shopify chose Razorpay as their India payments partner. We help international businesses collect locally and settle globally, without the operational lift.
Expand into India with confidence
