How to Accept UPI Payments on Your Online Store (India)

Why UPI dominates Indian checkout

UPI has become the default way India pays. From metro buyers to tier-2 and tier-3 shoppers, most people reach for a UPI app before they type a card number. On mobile, where the majority of your traffic sits, a UPI-intent handoff opens the buyer's payment app directly, they approve with a PIN, and the order is done in seconds. Fewer form fields means fewer drop-offs, and for first-time online buyers who distrust entering card details, UPI feels safer and faster.

The takeaway for any store owner is simple: if your checkout does not offer smooth UPI, you are leaking sales. On HOD Media, UPI is delivered through your payment gateway, so the same connection that powers cards and netbanking also powers UPI-intent and UPI collect.

Connect your own Razorpay or Cashfree keys

The most important detail: on hodmedia.in you plug in your own gateway keys. Both Razorpay and Cashfree are live for checkout, and money settles directly into your account from the gateway. The platform takes no cut per sale — you only pay your gateway's standard transaction fee. That is very different from marketplaces that skim a commission on every order.

Setup is quick: create or log in to your Razorpay or Cashfree account, complete their KYC, copy your API keys, and paste them into your store's payment settings. UPI, cards, netbanking and wallets that your gateway supports then appear at checkout. PayU support is coming soon (you can store keys now, but checkout is not wired yet), while Stripe and PayPal are available for international sellers on a connect-your-own basis.

UPI plus COD partial-advance to cut RTO

COD is still huge in India, but it drags return-to-origin (RTO) losses with it. HOD Media supports native COD and, crucially, COD partial-advance — you collect part of the order value online (via UPI) and keep the balance as cash on delivery. A buyer who has paid even a small advance through UPI is far less likely to reject the parcel, so you reduce fake orders and RTO while still offering the COD comfort tier-2 and tier-3 customers expect.

Gateway comparison at a glance

Get more from UPI-first checkout

Once UPI is live, you can lean into it. HOD Media lets you run online-payment-only offers — for example a small discount when the buyer pays via UPI instead of COD — which nudges customers toward prepaid orders and further trims RTO. You can layer this with automatic code-less discounts, combo/bundle deals, BOGO and countdown flash-sale timers, all applied at checkout.

On the finance side, you get GST-style invoices with HSN codes, place-of-supply handling and a charge-GST toggle, so your UPI-paid orders come with compliant paperwork. Abandoned-checkout recovery fires off a reminder (via the Razorpay or Cashfree webhook, idempotent) when a shopper drops off before paying, helping you win back UPI sales you would otherwise lose.

What about competitors?

Platforms like Shopify, Instamojo, Dukaan, Bikayi and Shiprocket360/KartRocket each handle payments differently, and their plans and fee structures change often — check their current terms at the time of writing. The India-native advantage of HOD Media is straightforward: you use your own gateway, keep every rupee minus your gateway fee with no per-sale commission, and get UPI, COD partial-advance, GST invoicing and multi-courier shipping built in. Plans are rupee-priced with a free 3-month trial and no card required.

Quick setup checklist

• Open a Razorpay or Cashfree account and finish KYC.
• Copy your API keys into your store's payment settings on hodmedia.in.
• Enable UPI, cards and netbanking (all ride on one connection).
• Turn on native COD and set a COD partial-advance amount.
• Add an online-payment-only offer to push prepaid UPI orders.

With these steps, your store accepts UPI the way Indian buyers actually want to pay — fast, mobile-first, and with money landing directly in your account.