India’s Paytm introduced the innovative sound box, a pocket-sized speaker designed to instantly validate and announce successful payments to merchants. It has deployed million of these devices to the market, offering them to merchants at just above $1 monthly. India’s largest company is paying attention.
Reliance has been testing a sound box with employees at some of its stores in its campus in recent weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The device uses Jio Pay as the reconciler, the person said, requesting anonymity speaking on nonpublic matters. The firm, run by Mukesh Ambani, has a tradition of internally testing new offerings with its staff before a public launch. But how soon, if at all, it plans to unveil the device remains unclear. It didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The sound box, whose bill of materials cost less than $20, is rapidly becoming an emblem of digital transactions in various Indian retail settings. Its audible co...
