How digital payments pioneer Paytm came up with the groundbreaking Soundbox - in the words of Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Paytm Soundbox is a revolutionary device that has emerged as a disruptor in digital payments. It helps merchants with instant audio alerts on receiving payments in their preferred regional language. But did you know that there is a very interesting story about how the Soundbox came about.

The Paytm Soundbox was born out of its Founder and CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s personal experience. Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, Vijay shared the story of this game changer innovation with the audience that came about as a result of his trip to a nearby store to buy milk.

At the event, Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, “I was stopped by the shopkeeper because he hadn’t got a payment alert for my purchase through SMS. I asked to see his phone and saw that his inbox was full and hence he couldn’t receive any new messages. To solve that, there was a feature on the Paytm app while checking out where a call was made to the merchant to tell him that payment is done. But the phone call option was not feasible. As the ultimate solution to the problem of instant alerts, we needed an arbitration device between the merchant and the customer. That is how Soundbox was born.”

Paytm Soundbox has been groundbreaking for merchants. The device has seen rapid adoption across the country and played a vital role in empowering small and microbusinesses in India. It supports multiple languages such as English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi and Odia. The Soundbox provides flexibility and convenience to merchants with support for multiple payment methods such as Paytm Wallet, Postpaid, Paytm UPI and other BHIM UPI apps, net banking & cards.

In addition to Soundbox, Paytm’s innovative payment solutions for merchants include QR payments, EDC and Payment Gateway. In its last monthly operating performance update (July & August 2022), the company said it has now deployed over 4.5 million devices as it continues to further cement its offline payments leadership.