How Karnataka’s merchants are using digital payments to grow faster

In the heart of Karnataka, digital payments are reshaping how merchants run and grow their businesses. From the bustling lanes of Nagarbhavi in Bengaluru to silk stores in Mysuru and busy neighborhood ice cream parlours, businesses of every scale are increasingly relying on digital payment platforms like PhonePe to manage transactions, streamline operations, serve customers faster, and drive business growth.

What began as a shift in payment behaviour has now evolved into a broader business transformation—helping merchants improve cash flow, reduce friction at checkout, and operate with greater efficiency.

Here are the stories of three Karnataka merchants who are using digital payments to modernize their businesses and adapt to a rapidly changing consumer economy.

A Bengaluru flower vendor finds growth beyond cash

Devi Rani has been selling flowers for 23 years beside a temple in Nagarbhavi. She and her husband arrive at KR Market before dawn, picking marigolds, roses, and lilies while most of the city sleeps. By the time the temple bells ring, her stall is alive with colour and fragrance. 

Her wearing a sweatshirt that read ‘Freedom’ felt less like a coincidence and more like a quiet declaration of being in charge of her business and how it is run.

What has changed? The friction has disappeared. Be it a customer short on change or a day’s earnings tallied by hand, going digital has removed the rough edges. Payments now confirm instantly, in multiple languages, so that a Tamil-speaking customer and a Kannada-speaking vendor never lose a moment to miscommunication.

When the time came to expand, the loan she needed arrived without the paperwork maze she had feared. “Many of my friends had already taken a loan with the help of the PhonePe platform,” she recalls. “They told me it was safe. They told me how it had made their lives easier.”

With the loan, she now plans to grow her business, a powerful testament to how a reliable digital payments partner can empower merchants to move forward with confidence.

A Mysuru saree store modernizes a three-generation legacy

Three hours south, in the city of silk and sandalwood, Sanchit is doing what third-generation business owners do best, carrying something precious forward without letting it become fragile.

His grandfather started Sindoor, a saree and textile shop that has been part of the city’s fabric for three generations. Sanchit grew up watching the ledgers, learning the names of weaves, and understanding the pulse of a customer who knows exactly what they want.

The shift to digital payments began at the customers’ request. What surprised Sanchit most was not the technology itself, but what it gave back to him: time, clarity, and trust in his team. “My staff is able to handle payments now,” he says. “It is not important for me to be present all the time.”

The business his grandfather built remains true to its legacy, but digital payments have made growth seamless and efficient. For Sanchit, this shift is the difference between simply managing a business and driving its future forward.

Polar Bear needed payments that could keep up with expansion

Born in Karnataka, Polar Bear has grown into one of India’s fastest-growing ice-cream brands, with outlets now spread across multiple cities. But in a business built on quick service and customer experience, even a short delay at the billing counter can affect the overall experience.

For Prashant Prakash, Vice President of Sales and Operations at Polar Bear, the need was clear: find a payments partner that could keep pace with the company’s rapid expansion.

“We [needed] someone who can match our pace of growth,” he says. With PhonePe, the company found a system that brought multiple payment modes onto a single interface while keeping transactions seamless for customers. “With PhonePe, the onboarding was smooth, the reconciliation process was smooth, and the reliability and uptime have been consistent,” Prakash says. “Customer hardly face any wait at the cash counter, which has helped us deliver a better experience to everyone who walks in.”

For a brand that depends as much on speed as it does on dessert, operational consistency has become part of the product itself.

A broader transformation across Karnataka

A flower vendor in Nagarbhavi, a saree shop in Mysuru, and an ice cream chain expanding across India are all part of a larger transformation reshaping Karnataka’s business landscape. At the core of this change is the rise of digital payments, which have become more than just a convenience. They are tools of growth, efficiency, and inclusion.

Platforms like PhonePe are helping merchants simplify operations, access financial services, and focus on what truly matters: growing their businesses. By bridging tradition and technology, digital payments are enabling Karnataka’s merchants to not just adapt but thrive – and rewrite their business stories, one transaction at a time. 

Watch the video stories of these merchants and their journeys here!