Easebuzz Payment Gateway : UPI (Unified Payment Interface) needs no introduction in India and it can be said that this payment method has single-handedly led the digital payment transformation in India. In just 4 years, UPI has grown to over 1 billion transactions per month and has become the payment method of choice for most Indians.

However, despite the ease of P2P (Person-to-Person) transactions for UPI, the P2M (Person-to-Merchant) payment process is still somewhat complex on iOS devices, with multiple processes in place, not all of which are sufficiently optimised. In this article, we will explore some of the solutions that merchants can adopt to optimise the UPI payment experience for iOS users.

For Android users, the in-app experience and Intent Flow provide a native experience and higher conversion rates, whereas iOS users are stuck with the plain old Collect Flow. Collect Flow is the most cumbersome of all UPI processes, where consumers need to enter a virtual payment address (a string of alphanumeric numbers), on the same or different devices receive a notification, select the notification or open a consumer app (e.g. Google Pay, PhonePe, etc.), sign in using the app/device, and then enter the consumer MPIN to complete the transaction.

After struggling with letter and dot (or missing) permutations when entering VPAs, waiting or looking for app notifications, and switching between multiple apps in the device, coupled with multiple network calls between backend systems, transactions can easily be left in a hung state, resulting in unfinished orders or cart abandonment, or prolonged order completion times!

Simple and efficient experience for iOS users

Intent Flow - By using the PayU iOS SDK, iOS users can be provided with an Intent experience similar to that of Android devices, where consumers are automatically redirected to their preferred payment service provider app. The first layer of authentication can be done using Apple Facial Recognition, while the second layer uses the bank's MPIN. period! iOS Intent Flow thus reduces turnaround time and increases efficiency, which was previously limited to Android devices. Our merchants report an 8% to 10% increase in success rates compared to the previous Collect-only experience.

Advanced Collect Flow -- In regular Collect Flow, one challenge is the initiation of the payment request itself, where consumers often forget their VPA or enter it incorrectly. In Advanced Collect Flow, payment requests can be initiated via the consumer's phone number instead of their VPA. The merchant's system auto-populates the consumer's phone number, and they receive a notification to open the app and enter their bank's MPIN, thus completely eliminating the hassle of remembering and entering a string of alphanumeric VPAs. Needless to say, this process has a 6% to 8% higher success rate than regular Collect Flow!

However, you may ask, it seems a bit hard to believe that the success rate of 6% to 8% has improved just because of the change in the user input method ...... Indeed, the nature of the transaction has changed from a "pull transaction" to a "push transaction", i.e. a pre-authenticated Intent transaction, instead of a pull transaction in the Collect Flow, thus helping to improve the conversion rate. Indeed, in a Collect Flow initiated with a number, the nature of the transaction changes from a "pull transaction" to a "push transaction", i.e., a pre-authenticated Intent transaction, rather than a pull transaction in a Collect Flow, thus helping to improve conversion rates.

VPA Entry Optimisation - Consumers still want to enter the VPA? don't worry, we've made that process easier too. After the consumer selects the app name, we populate the second part of the VPA '@text' and the consumer fills in the prefix. After that, the VPA is validated before the transaction is initiated (if the memory score is not 100%). To take it to the next level, the validation process is done internally and does not involve any third party, thus speeding up the checkout.

The UPI P2M transaction process for iOS users has become smoother and easier, which results in higher conversion rates, faster checkouts and a better customer experience.

If you want to know more about Intent Flow or Advanced Collect Flow, feel free to contact us. Integration details are available here.PayU is a leading payment solution provider in India. To know more about our products and services, please visit our website.