Merchant Stack: ICICI Bank launches banking platform for merchants; check details here

ICICI Bank has launched ‘Merchant Stack’ which is a set of the country’s most comprehensive digital banking services specially for retail merchants on Thursday, April 29.

The banking platform will empower over 2 crore retail merchants in the nation by offering instant banking facilities and value-added services in one place in order to enhance the productivity and efficiency of merchants.

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Following the norms of the coronavirus pandemic, these contactless services can be availed by the retail merchants without visiting the bank’s branches as people are advised to stay home and maintain social distancing to curb the spread of the virus.

Merchants can avail these facilities instantly using the bank’s mobile banking application for businesses called 'InstaBIZ'.

According to the information provided by the bank, the main pillars of the stack include:

1. Super Merchant Current Account: It is a zero-balance account linked to the usage of the bank’s POS (Point-of-Sale) facilities and is available in two variants namely Super Advantage and Super Advantage Plus.

2. Instant Credit Facilities: Two instant credit facilities are being offered by the bank namely Merchant Overdraft and Express Credit, both of which are based on POS transactions and are first in the industry. Merchant Overdraft empowers pre-qualified merchants with a linked ICICI Bank POS machine to get up to Rs 25 lakh digitally. While Express Credit can be used to get instant settlement of POS transactions.

3. Digital Store Management: This facility will help merchants take their business online by offering a one-stop solution that will enable merchants to transform their physical store into a digital store within half an hour.

4. Exclusive loyalty rewards programme: Merchants using the bank’s Eazypay facility to accept instant cashless payments from customers through POS/QR solution will get points for transactions using this reward programme which can be redeemed for shopping, vouchers, vacations among others.  

5. Value added services like alliances with major e-commerce and digital marketing platforms for expansion of online presence.

Commenting on the launch, Anup Bagchi, ICICI Bank said, “There are over 2 crore merchants in the country with approximately USD 780 billion in value of transactions in 2020. They are expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. Through these trying times of the pandemic, it is our endeavour to enable the merchants with a digital banking platform that will help them to continue to serve their customers. We have thus launched the ‘Merchant Stack’, which most importantly offers a range of ‘contactless’ banking services, providing safety to the merchants and their customers alike."

He further added that this new offering is part of the bank's guiding principle of ‘Business with Care’ and is also a continuation of ‘ICICI Stack’ which was launched a year ago to offer retail customers all digital banking services from one platform.