For ecommerce platform Meesho, the vision has always been clear: democratize e-commerce for every Indian. But serving India’s vast and diverse audience, particularly from beyond Tier-1 cities, comes with a unique set of challenges—from low internet connectivity to a user base that is often transacting online for the very first time.
At the heart of this challenge lies the most critical moment in any e-commerce journey: the payment.
“For a first-time user, a transaction is always a high-anxiety moment,” says Aditya Vikram, Senior Director of Product at Meesho. “For us, a failed payment is worse than a sold-out item. It’s a big trust break, and it leads to a conversion loss.”
To solve this, Meesho adopted Razorpay’s Turbo UPI solution, an industry-first tech stack powered by BHIM Vega, and developed by NPCI BHIM Services Limited on behalf of acquiring banks. Designed to streamline the checkout process and build a crucial bridge of trust, Turbo UPI offers a faster and more seamless digital payments experience to millions of new digital shoppers.
The challenge: Building for Bharat
“A lot of our user base sits outside of Tier 1 India,” Vikram explains. “They may have low internet access or limited access to financial instruments. Ensuring they have a great experience by reducing friction at checkout is a critical goal for us.”
The traditional UPI payment flow, which redirects users to a third-party app, may add friction and complexity. For a user on a low-spec device with patchy internet, every additional step and app switch increases the chance of a drop-off.
This is the problem Razorpay Turbo UPI was designed to solve. By connecting directly to NPCI BHIM’s infrastructure, it enables customers to complete payments within the Meesho app, without redirecting them to another app. This cuts down steps at checkout, improves transaction speed, and gives a smoother payment experience.
“We’re working very closely with Razorpay to make sure that users don’t have to switch apps and can make payments directly within the Meesho app,” Vikram notes. “The UPI Turbo plugin is a big part of that.”
The impact: Greater user trust and faster payments
For many Meesho users, especially in smaller towns, setting up a UPI app is often a barrier to making online payments. Downloading a separate app, registering, and linking a bank account can feel cumbersome, or even intimidating for first-time digital users. Turbo UPI helps bypass that hurdle by letting users onboard to UPI directly within the Meesho app itself.
“One of the key problems Turbo UPI solves is providing access to a UPI app,” says Vikram. “It enables our users who don’t have a UPI app to transact online with good trust and good confidence.” This seamless experience is already translating into sticky customer behavior. According to Vikram, this leads to two significant shifts:
- Increased user stickiness: New users transacting online for the first time develop a preference for online payments after a positive experience with both checkouts and refunds.
- Higher repeat rate: Onboarded users are more likely to come back because the in-app experience significantly reduces the number of checkout steps, making it more convenient.
Reflecting on the broader vision behind Turbo UPI, Khilan Haria, Chief Product Officer at Razorpay, explains, “At Razorpay, we believe true product innovation happens when we solve the challenges faced by the next billion users, those coming online for the very first time. That belief is what led us to build Turbo UPI, a solution designed to simplify payments across a wide spectrum of devices, geographies, and digital comfort levels.” He adds, “With Meesho’s scale and deep understanding of Bharat users, we’ve been able to bring this vision to life through a seamless, in-app payment experience that’s fast, intuitive, and inclusive.”
The future: Shifting from COD to confident digital payments
With a smoother payments system in place, Meesho is focused on converting more of its user base from Cash on Delivery (COD) to prepaid digital transactions.
“The experience that an online paid product has versus a COD product is very different,” Vikram concludes. “The Turbo UPI Plugin is a big step in that direction, as it allows our users to transact with confidence. What’s next for us is to make sure that our users have access to a financial instrument that they use to pay online confidently, even if they’ve never shopped online in the past.”
Meesho’s strategic adoption of Razorpay Turbo UPI is more than a feature update; it reflects a broader shift toward simplifying digital transactions for first-time shoppers. By integrating directly with NPCI’s tech stack, the solution is helping lower entry barriers and build trust in digital payments for a wider user base.
