By: Abid Murshed, Market Leader, PayPal India
As India gears up for its grand festive stretch - from Navratri and Diwali to New Year and the wedding season - the spirit of celebration is also taking shape worldwide. It is a time for exchanging gifts, refreshing festive wardrobes, and celebrating traditions that spark commerce well beyond India’s borders. For Indian Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the season presents a powerful opportunity to connect with consumers worldwide.
Last year, India’s exports surged 17.3% year-on-year in the month of October, driven by festive season demand, underscoring the season’s power1. However, the bigger prize for MSMEs lies beyond these short-term spikes, in turning first-time international buyers into repeat customers. Achieving that depends on delivering payment experiences that are seamless, secure, and inspire trust. With a major focus on verified transactions, transparency in communication, and buyer protection, MSMEs can turn festive traffic into long-term loyalty and sustainable growth.
Building Trust to Win the Competition
Like many companies in India, apparel brands Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop, Aza Fashions, and Little Muffet are preparing to meet the festive demand with a global outlook. Since their partnership with PayPal, these brands have established a strong and growing international presence, serving a diverse global customer base across multiple countries through fraud-protected transactions.
While price and product variety will always matter, it is trust that increasingly determines whether a browsing shopper converts into a loyal customer. MSMEs that build trust into their user experience, through verified payments, fraud-proof checkout, and consistent customer communication, are better placed to turn festive traffic into long-term loyalty.
PayPal aims to act as a trust enabler for several MSMEs and freelancers by offering features such as built-in buyer protection, real-time transaction visibility, and dispute resolution capabilities. This enables them to instill confidence among first-time international shoppers.
Smarter Payments & Rise of Agentic Commerce
In a world transformed by the rise of AI, payment systems must evolve to become truly smarter. Advanced AI-enabled fraud detection systems and real-time monitoring are essential to avoid operational glitches during peak festive periods. This helps merchants flag risks proactively and protect buyers from potential fraud. In fact, an impressive 15%2 increase in approval rates and notable gains in cross-border revenue have been witnessed with merchants using smart payment routing and AI-led fraud detection. These innovations also help reduce false declines, a common challenge in international e-commerce.
Trust is strengthened when businesses anticipate customer preferences and reflect them through tailored products and personalized engagement. PayPal is harnessing AI to unlock consumer insights at scale. This is enabling brands like Little Muffet, a globally popular destination for children’s ethnic wear, to connect more meaningfully with customers across international markets, driving deeper engagement and loyalty.
AI-powered tools are important for further enhancing overall user experience and addressing issues such as cart abandonment, which tend to surge during the festive rush. Newer advancements such as agentic AI will give birth to agentic commerce, wherein consumer demands can be easily searched, compared, and even transacted with the help of AI assistants. For such an AI-driven shopping experience to be implemented seamlessly and adopted with confidence by customers, the bar for building trust will be raised even higher.
Turning Festive Demand into Long-Term Loyalty
Trust today is not only being built at the merchant level but also reinforced at the systemic level. The Reserve Bank of India’s in-principle approval for PayPal to operate as a regulated cross-border payment aggregator reflects growing regulatory support for secure and compliant fund flows in e-commerce exports. This institutional layer of trust can further boost buyer confidence, especially among first-time international shoppers.
India’s e-commerce market is projected to reach USD 292.3 billion by 20283, which means MSMEs have their task cut out in harnessing opportunities. The imperative now is simple: whether it’s AI-enabled or human-led shopping, merchants need to build trust through transparency, security, and protection of buyers, which can be especially reassuring for first-time international customers.
With the right mix of secure payments, localized experiences, and customer-first strategies, Indian MSMEs can turn festive demand into sustainable growth worldwide. Those already navigating cross-border trade must deepen their commitment and those yet to begin should act now, laying the foundation to turn seasonal traffic into lasting global customer relationships. As cross-border e-commerce continues to evolve, building trust at the checkout will remain the silent driver of loyalty and repeat business.
We wish all our readers a joyous festive season. Click here to discover more on how your business can grow cross-border.