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How do I optimise UPI at checkout, what's the difference between UPI intent and collect, and why do my UPI payments keep failing?

UPI Intent deep-links straight into the customer's UPI app (GPay, PhonePe) on the same device and posts materially higher success rates; UPI Collect sends a pull request the customer has to notice and approve elsewhere, and lands meaningfully lower. Default to Intent on mobile, fall back to a dynamic QR on desktop, and let your gateway handle bank-side routing and retries, most UPI failures are bank-side timeouts, not something you fix with UI tweaks. UPI also carries 0% MDR in India currently, so pushing it over cards isn't just about conversion, it's your cheapest rail, worth featuring first rather than buried in a payment-method list.

Go deeper

4 resources, 3 India-specific, 4 link-checked.

📄 Article
✓ Link checked India Free Intermediate

The clearest technical explanation of why UPI Intent out-converts Collect, from the gateway that actually routes the transactions and sees the failure data. Send this to your dev team when they ask why UPI success rates vary by flow.

UPI Intent vs Collect: Which One Actually Works Better?

From razorpay.com by Razorpay

  • Intent deep-links directly into the customer's UPI app; Collect requires a manual app-switch and approval.
  • Reported Intent success rates run materially higher than Collect, per Razorpay's data, exact figures vary by report.
  • Recommended pattern: Intent on mobile, dynamic QR on desktop, gateway handles bank-side retry logic.
Open razorpay.com
📄 Article
✓ Link checked India Free Intermediate

Most Indian D2C traffic is mobile, and this is Razorpay's own guidance on where mobile checkouts specifically lose people, worth reading alongside Baymard's more general research for the India-specific mobile angle.

Mobile Optimized Checkout Flows

From razorpay.com by Razorpay

  • Mobile checkout abandonment consistently runs higher than desktop despite mobile being the majority of traffic.
  • Payment-method ordering (UPI first, not buried under cards) measurably affects mobile conversion.
  • Page-load speed at the payment step has an outsized effect on mobile drop-off.
Open razorpay.com
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Freemium Intermediate

The deepest independent usability research base on why carts get abandoned - the '70% abandonment' figure and specific checkout friction points cited across the CRO industry trace back to this research.

E-Commerce Cart & Checkout Usability Research

From baymard.com by Baymard Institute

  • Roughly 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout, aggregated across dozens of studies (Baymard estimate, moves over time).
  • Fixing documented checkout usability issues can meaningfully lift conversion - Baymard's own research cites gains approaching a third.
  • Surprise extra costs and complicated/lengthy checkout forms are among the single biggest named reasons shoppers abandon.
Open baymard.com
🛠️ Tool
✓ Link checked India Free Beginner

Cashfree's own live pricing page, broken out by payment method (cards, UPI, net banking, EMI, international cards), the fastest way to see that UPI carries 0% MDR while international cards run 3.5%+₹7. Use it to sanity-check whatever a sales rep quotes you.

Payment Gateway Charges: Lowest Pricing & UPI Payment Gateway Fees in India

From cashfree.com by Cashfree

  • UPI and RuPay currently carry 0% transaction fees on Cashfree.
  • International card fees run roughly 3.5% + ₹7 per transaction, factor this into exporter pricing.
  • 18% GST applies on the gateway fee, not on the full order value, don't double-count it.
Open cashfree.com

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