When Tanishq Creates Desire, airpay Completes the Experience

How airpay bridged the gap between the shopper in the store and the one paying on the phone.

85% of Tanishq shoppers are women. Most high-ticket purchases are funded by someone else.

Walk into any Tanishq showroom on a Saturday afternoon, and the floor tells a story. Women- mothers, daughters, brides-to-be, and those pampering themselves account for roughly 85% of in-store visitors. They know what they want. They hold the necklace up to the light, ask the right questions, and know their metals and karats. They are, by every measure, the real decision-architects in the purchase.

And yet, when the bill arrives, 60–70% of high-value jewellery transactions in India are settled by someone who was never in the store. A husband. A father. A partner. Someone sitting in an office or at home, wallet in hand, waiting for a phone call.

This is not a problem with the jewellery. This is a structural gap in how the payment moment is designed, and for years, it quietly swallowed conversions.

The Budget Moment: The Pause Before Saying ‘Yes’

Here is the scene that plays out, thousands of times a week, across India’s jewellery counters. A woman has spent an hour at the display. She has narrowed it down to one piece. It is beautiful. It is exactly right. And it is ₹10,000 over what she and her husband had agreed on.

What does she do? She pulls out her phone. She calls. She explains. There is a pause. Then the reluctant yes or the “we’ll think about it.”

Even when there is a yes, the transaction itself becomes an obstacle. The husband has to transfer money to her account. She has to withdraw or pay from an app that’s now showing the wrong balance. Or worse- the store pushes them toward a payment method that feels unfamiliar, unsafe or insecure.

For a brand built on trust, on “the purity you can bank on,” this friction was inconsistent with the experience Tanishq had worked to create. A jewellery purchase is an emotional decision, and where emotion drives purchase, that pause is where conversions are lost.  

She knew what she wanted the moment she saw it. The only question was getting the payment across- quickly, safely, and without killing the moment.”

— Store Manager, Tanishq, Bengaluru

A Secure Payment Link That Travels Faster Than a Phone Call

airpay’s answer was precise- a purpose-built feature that fits the actual behaviour of real customers.

Remote payment links, sent directly to the decision-maker

With airpay’s payment link infrastructure, the Tanishq store associate can generate a secure, encrypted payment link on the spot, with the exact invoice and amount, with a short expiry window. That link goes directly to the decision-maker’s WhatsApp, SMS, or email. He clicks it from wherever he is, sees the Tanishq branding, the itemised bill, the secure payment gateway, and pays. Done.

No money transferred between accounts. No third-party apps involved. No verbal confirmation of amounts. The store closes the sale in real time.

Why Security Was Non-Negotiable

A payment link from an unknown number, for a jewellery purchase, for an amount in the tens of thousands- that’s exactly the pattern that fraud mimics. Tanishq and airpay both understood that the link had to feel unmistakably legitimate.

• Secure by design. End-to-end encryption with PCI-DSS-compliant infrastructure
• Recognisable immediately. Tanishq-branded payment page with store details pre-filled
• Time-bound. Short-validity links that auto-expire, reducing phishing risk
• Transparent. Real-time SMS and email confirmation to both parties on payment
• Private by default. No personal financial data shared between the shopper and the payer

Split Payments: One Sale, Multiple Accounts, Zero Manual Work

Every time a customer pays at a Tanishq store, a settlement chain unfolds that most people never see. Tanishq, as a merchant, works with a network of vendors and franchise partners, each of whom owes their share of every transaction. Traditionally, reconciling and routing those payments downstream was a manual, time-consuming back-office function.

With airpay’s split-payment infrastructure, the entire chain is automated. The moment a payment is collected, airpay’s system splits the funds and routes the correct amount to Tanishq’s own account, vendor accounts, and franchise partners, all instantly and without any manual intervention.

• Trigger.  Payment is collected from the customer at the point of sale
• Distribute.  Pre-configured split rules route the right percentage to each party automatically
• Settle.  Every vendor, franchise partner, or supplier receives their share in real time
• Reconcile.  Full reconciliation report generated- no manual matching, no end-of-day pile-up

Beyond Payments: Cash Management Across 400+ Stores

airpay’s relationship with Tanishq extends well beyond customer-facing transactions. Across 400+ stores nationwide, airpay manages the full cash flow cycle: daily reconciliation, digital cash management, and settlement reporting that feeds directly into Tanishq’s back-end systems.

For a retail operation of this scale- multiple store formats, variable daily footfall, and transactions ranging from ₹2,000 silver pieces to ₹5 lakh bridal sets- clean, reliable reconciliation is not a back-office concern. It is a business-critical function. airpay’s infrastructure handles this without noise, which is perhaps the highest compliment one can pay a payments partner.

The Numbers Behind the Story

• 3x faster payment closure vs. bank transfer
• 8 years of uninterrupted partnership
• 24/7 support across all Tanishq stores

Besides these numbers, something else shifted as well. When the decision-maker could be looped in in real time, the payment success rate improved.  

“We have had an eight-year partnership with airpay across payments, cash management services, and split payments. Their seamless solutions, 24/7 support, and prompt issue resolution make them a reliable partner. I highly recommend airpay for dependable and efficient payment services.”

Tanishq — Titan Company Limited  |  National Retail Operations

What Eight Years Actually Means

Eight years in fintech is a long time. Regulations change. Consumer behaviour shifts. Platforms rise and fall. A partnership that survives for eight years in Indian retail payments is not a vendor relationship; it’s an operational integration.

For Tanishq, airpay’s value has been consistent across three dimensions:

• Reliability. Payment infrastructure that works invisibly when things go right and resolves quickly when they don’t.
• Responsiveness. A support team available at all hours, across all stores, without delays.
• Fit. A willingness to build for the specific dynamics of jewellery retail  

The real win here is not technological. It is human.

airpay did not try to redesign how Indian families make purchasing decisions. It respected the dynamic, understood it, and built a payment flow around it. The woman in the store is still the one who chooses. The man with the phone is still the one who confirms. What’s different is that the gap between those two moments no longer has to cost a sale.

For Tanishq, every piece that stays on the counter because the payment link did not arrive, or did not feel safe, or arrived too late, is a missed moment in a relationship they’ve spent decades building. airpay’s infrastructure makes sure those moments are fewer.

That is what a payment partner is supposed to do.