E-commerce companies were already on their dream run in India before the pandemic. Payment systems for e-commerce were already in place and very much functional. But the restrictions implemented since the COVID made people shop through their houses even more. This increase in the use of E-commerce added more people and many of them were unaware of the payment gateways used. This started a race to make them as smooth as possible and hassle-free. These days when you go to the payment page of any E-commerce site, you will find many options.

This is a volatile market and people are seeing changes every year for new payment systems being introduced. Many are observing lots of modifications in already existing payment systems for e-commerce. We will look in detail below at a few payment gateways for E-commerce.

1.  Payment by Debit/Credit card

This is probably the oldest gateway used in a line with online payments. Users need to put their card details on a website to pay for goods. This gave a chance to a few tech-savvy thugs to steal the privacy of customers if websites are not protected enough. Seeing such a thing in the news people started doubting while putting card details online. The respective organization worked on these problems and made this gateway more secure and also gave users other more hassle-free options.

2.  Netbanking

With net banking, paying online got easier on E-commerce sites. Every time a user wants to purchase something, he needs to put his online banking details. This gateway is good for people who do not frequently shop and want more security.

3.  Wallets

Many E-commerce websites give this option of having their own wallet. Users can load money to a certain amount in their wallet once a while and it can be used for subsequent purchases with just one click. This option is very useful in multiple small purchases because big purchases can not pass through authorizations.

Also, these options are best when you want to return some product and get a refund. Refunds are instantly processed and within seconds you will receive a refund amount in your wallet. Sometimes you will find it hard when you want to shop from a different E-commerce site and your loaded money is in a different wallet managed by another e-commerce site.

4.  UPI

This is a new and relatively more secure way of transactions. With this, the bank allocates you an ID called ‘UPI ID’. Users only need to share this to receive and send money. Also, users can attach their mobile number to UPI and transactions will be as easy as chatting with other persons. This is an instant mode of transaction and money will be transferred within seconds. UPI ID data can be saved as a QR code and this information can be accessed by any sender who will scan the QR code and initiate the transaction. This is becoming a more common payment system for e-commerce because this is simple, safe, and hassle-free.

5.  Paypal

This is one of the most commonly used payment systems for e-commerce used in western countries. This is not so popular in India and not used by e-commerce sites in India. When users want to purchase something from international e-commerce sites, this is the simplest way to make payments. Users will pay in INR and exchange rates will be taken care of by PayPal. PayPal will add some additional fees for the exchange rate but still, this is the simplest and hassle-free mode of payment for Indians who are willing to purchase things internationally.

This being said, we can see many new payment systems be introduced in the coming years. Instead of OTP, biometrics can be used to pass transfer authorizations. TAN system can also be introduced in India which is already used for authentication purposes in Europe and USA. There are strong chances that cryptocurrencies are introduced as payment systems for e-commerce.