Vodafone India, one of India’s leading telecom service providers, has entered into a strategic tie-up with Walmart India, the wholly owned subsidiary of world’s largest retailer Walmart Stores Inc for mobile payments.
The tie-up will enable business members of six Best Price Modern Wholesale stores, owned and operated by Walmart India, to make payments using M-Pesa from their mobile anywhere, anytime.
Walmart operates several large wholesale stores across India. Members of these stores can use Walmart’s ecommerce portal as well. M-Pesa will make it possible to use the website without using a credit card.
“The first-of-its-kind partnership with Walmart India, gives all its members, including small businesses such as kiranas/resellers, the benefit of sending money through their mobile phones instantly & securely and run their customer facing businesses more efficiently and in hassle-free manner,” Vodafone said.
As a part of this partnership, Vodafone M-Pesa will enable safe, secure and convenient transactions, making it easier for all its members in Lucknow, Amravati, Aurangabad, Hyderabad, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada and Guntur to make faster payments and help Walmart ensure timely delivery of goods.
Under this arrangement, when a Best Price store member based in any of these cities places an order with Walmart India, a Vodafone M-Pesa authorized agent will reach out to him/her and enable cash-in into his/her M-Pesa account.
This will allow the member to make payments from his/her phone for the goods ordered from Walmart’s Best Price Cash & Carry store. After receiving a confirmation message, Walmart India will immediately dispatch goods to the member.
“Starting with pilots in Amravati and Lucknow, we have now extended it to members in Aurangabad, Hyderabad, Rajahmundry, Guntur and Vijayawada and we hope to extend it pan-India soon,” said Suresh Sethi, Business Head –M-Pesa, Vodafone India.