A 2-second delay at checkout costs you 5-7% conversions. A failed payment attempt loses 30% of those customers forever. The wrong payment gateway doesn’t just cost you in fees — it costs you in lost sales.
For Indian D2C brands, the payment gateway needs to handle UPI (50%+ of online transactions), support COD toggling, offer fast settlements, and integrate cleanly with Shopify or WooCommerce.
We’ve integrated all four major gateways across 200+ stores at Growww Tech. Here’s our unbiased breakdown.
| Feature | Razorpay | Cashfree | PayU | Instamojo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transaction fee | 2% | 1.90% | 2% | 2% + ₹3 |
| UPI fee | 2% | 1.90% | 2% | 2% + ₹3 |
| Settlement time | T+2 (instant available) | T+1 to T+2 | T+2 to T+3 | T+3 to T+5 |
| Shopify integration | Native (best) | App available | App available | Limited |
| WooCommerce plugin | Official plugin | Official plugin | Official plugin | Official plugin |
| Payment links | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (core feature) |
| Subscriptions | Yes | Yes | Limited | Yes |
| International payments | Yes (PayPal, cards) | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Minimum KYC | PAN + Bank account | PAN + Bank account | PAN + Bank account | PAN + Bank account |
| Onboarding time | 2-3 business days | 1-2 business days | 3-5 business days | Same day |
| EMI options | No-cost EMI available | Available | Available | No |
| BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) | Simpl, LazyPay | Simpl | LazyPay | No |
| Best for | Most D2C brands | High-volume brands | Enterprise/marketplace | Solopreneurs |
Our verdict: Best all-around choice for Indian D2C brands. The Shopify integration alone makes it worth it.
Our verdict: Best for brands doing 1,000+ transactions/month who want to save on fees. Consider as a secondary gateway alongside Razorpay.
Our verdict: Only consider if you’re doing enterprise volumes or need specific B2B payment features. Not ideal for D2C brands under ₹50 lakh/month.
Our verdict: Great for testing a product idea or selling via payment links. Outgrow it once you hit 100+ orders/month.
Regardless of which gateway you choose, these tips boost your payment success rate:
UPI is the preferred payment method for 50%+ of Indian online shoppers. Make it the default/first option at checkout.
Razorpay’s Magic Checkout and Cashfree’s saved cards reduce checkout friction for repeat customers. This alone can boost conversion by 10-15%.
For products above ₹3,000, no-cost EMI (you absorb the interest, typically 1-2%) dramatically increases conversion. A ₹6,000 product at ₹2,000/month feels much more accessible.
Show COD but place it LAST in the payment options list. Show the prepaid discount prominently: “Save ₹50 — Pay online.” This shifts your prepaid ratio up without removing COD.
85%+ of Indian ecommerce traffic is mobile. Test your checkout flow on a ₹10,000 Android phone — not just your iPhone. If UPI intent (direct app open) works smoothly, you’ll see 20%+ higher UPI success rates.
Advanced setup: if a payment fails on Razorpay, automatically retry on Cashfree. This “failover” routing recovers 5-8% of failed transactions. Your payment integration partner can set this up.
For a brand doing ₹10 lakh/month in revenue:
| Gateway | Monthly Fee Cost | Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Razorpay (2%) | ₹20,000 | ₹2,40,000 |
| Cashfree (1.90%) | ₹19,000 | ₹2,28,000 |
| PayU (2%) | ₹20,000 | ₹2,40,000 |
| Instamojo (2% + ₹3) | ₹23,000 | ₹2,76,000 |
The fee difference between Razorpay and Cashfree is ₹12,000/year at ₹10L/month revenue. That’s not nothing, but the Shopify integration quality and payment success rate of Razorpay easily recovers that in additional conversions.
For most Indian D2C brands on Shopify: Start with Razorpay. It’s the path of least resistance with the best integration, widest payment coverage, and highest success rates.
Once you’re doing ₹25L+/month, consider adding Cashfree as a secondary gateway for failover routing and negotiate better rates with both.
The right gateway depends on your AOV, your COD ratio, and how fast the gateway’s support team replies on a Sunday at 11pm. We pick by vendor response rate, not affiliation — Razorpay, PhonePe, Easebuzz, and Cashfree Payments all have a place in our stack depending on the brand. We’ve done payment integrations for 200+ Indian D2C brands. ₹385Cr+ revenue processed. 4.5x average ROI. 98% retention.
The Shopify build is ₹50,000 fixed-price with no AMC — bug fixes for what we ship are included for the lifetime of the store. Active multi-gateway optimisation work sits on the optional ₹30K/month Growth Retainer.
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