Announcing that it will enable five million merchants to leapfrog to digital payments in 2017, mobile payment and e-commerce platform Paytm on Tuesday launched an array of new features to enhance security and increase usability both for consumers and merchants.The company has also started working upstream with distribution networks in order to enable merchants who accept Paytm do business with their suppliers as well."While our field teams work on educating and onboarding merchants to accept Paytm, we understand that it is a need for our retailers to also be able to pay their suppliers digitally and we are working towards that," said Sudhanshu Gupta, Vice President, Paytm, in a statement. In the last 45 days, Paytm has introduced several new features to enable every Indian accept and pay using Paytm. The app is now available in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya and Punjabi.
To provide additional safety to the users, Paytm launched an 'App Password' feature on Android, wherein users can set a secure pin, password, pattern or fingerprint as a means to ensure money stored in the Paytm wallet remains safe even if the owner's phone is lost or misplaced.The company has also introduced a toll-free number to enable feature phone and non-internet users to go cashless with Paytm.Earlier this week, Paytm announced a 100-member 'merchant helpdesk', saying that it will invest Rs 50 crore towards educating merchants on digital payments across the country.Paytm is also setting up awareness camps in various districts to help the country go cashless.The team is conducting sessions and workshops across schools, colleges, village panchayats and trade bodies to serve the dual purpose of informing customers about the benefits of digital payments and tap into the widest set of merchants across the country.