Powered by Cashfree Payments’ International Payment Gateway, how Prashanti Sarees is draping the world in Indian weaves

Prashanti Sarees was founded with the belief that a saree is more than a garment: it is a vessel of memory, tradition, and belonging. What began as a single store soon grew into a name cherished by families across generations and celebrated for its authentic weaves sourced from across India. At its heart, Prashanti has always been about something deeper than commerce – the intimate bond between a saree and the person who drapes it.

By 2017, founder Brindha Padmanabhan realised that customers who had moved away from Prashanti’s physical stores longed for the same experience online. This led to the launch of Prashanti’s e-commerce platform, driven by the vision of bringing India’s rich saree heritage into homes across the globe.

“The challenge,” recalls Padmanabhan, “was to replicate the warmth of an in-store saree experience online. Sarees are tactile — you want to touch, feel, and drape them. We invested in rich visuals, detailed descriptions, and personal service to recreate that intimacy digitally.”

Beyond borders: when sarees went global

Once online, Prashanti began to attract attention from shoppers in the US, UK, Singapore, Australia, and the Middle East. While the Indian diaspora initially formed the core of its global customer base, sarees soon transcended cultural boundaries, embraced by new audiences worldwide.

The real turning point came in 2020, when global lockdowns drove shoppers online. Suddenly, Prashanti Sarees found itself shipping to destinations it had never imagined, evolving from a local favorite into a global e-commerce brand.

But international growth also meant navigating complex cross-border payments-related challenges: fluctuating currency conversions, unexpected bank charges, varying compliance norms, and frequent transaction failures risked eroding customer trust.

Imagine this: a customer in London adds a saree worth Rs 10,000 to their cart. At checkout, the amount shows up in pounds, but when their bank processes the payment, extra conversion charges and fluctuating exchange rates push the cost higher than expected. Confused and frustrated, the customer abandons the purchase. For brands going global like Prashanti Sarees, this meant lost sales and broken trust.

Enter Cashfree Payments: opening gateways to the globe

This is where Prashanti Sarees knew they could rely on Cashfree Payments. With its robust International Payment Gateway (IPG), the fintech giant provided Prashanti with a single, seamless solution to scale across borders while maintaining compliance, cost-efficiency, and customer trust, enabling a dramatic 25% increase in international conversions within the first three months itself.

Supporting businesses across 170+ markets and 140+ currencies, Cashfree’s IPG offers unmatched flexibility. Its Pay Native feature allows customers to see and pay in their local currency — pounds, dollars, euros, dirhams, or more — while merchants like Prashanti receive settlements in rupees. With no hidden fees or unexpected charges, this transparency builds trust, reduces cart abandonment, and makes international customers feel as confident shopping online as they would in-store, in their local region.

And behind that simplicity lies the assurance of safety and compliance. Cashfree was among the first Indian fintechs to be approved by the RBI to power cross-border payments under the Payment Aggregator – Cross Border (PA-CB) framework, and it continues to meet the highest global standards for secure transactions. Its smart risk engine works quietly in the background to detect and prevent fraud, keeping every purchase seamless, fraud-proof and trustworthy.

The result? Peace of mind for both merchants and customers, and a payments backbone strong enough to support global scale.

Weaving trust into every transaction

For Prashanti, this partnership wasn’t just about enabling payments; it was about creating a customer journey as smooth as silk.

• For domestic shoppers, Cashfree offered fast, secure, multi-option payments.
• For global customers, it simplified cross-border complexities with multi-currency support, compliance safeguards, and region-specific payment preferences.

As Padmanabhan puts it, choosing Cashfree Payments was about more than solving payment issues, it was about finding a partner for growth.

“As an entrepreneur, I look for partners who not only solve problems but also enable growth, and Cashfree did exactly that for us. They handled the backend complexity so our customers, whether in Chennai or Toronto, experienced only smooth, reliable transactions,” she says.

This partnership proved especially critical during peak shopping seasons like Diwali, Eid, and Christmas, when both domestic and international orders surged. “In the past, high traffic often meant slower processing times or occasional payment failures, but Cashfree eliminated those worries by ensuring zero disruptions, quick settlements, and robust performance,” Padmanabhan says. “Knowing payments go through smoothly allows our team to focus entirely on curating and delivering sarees, confident that the final step of the purchase journey is as seamless as the first.”

What’s next?

Prashanti Sarees now plans to expand further into Europe, Canada, and Southeast Asia, while deepening its presence in strong markets like the US, the UK, Singapore, and the Middle East. The company is also investing in faster global shipping, curated collections for regional audiences, and enhanced online experiences that retain the warmth of its in-store service.

“When a Prashanti saree reaches a customer overseas, it’s not just a parcel, it’s a piece of India’s heritage traveling across borders. Each weave carries the skill of our artisans, the traditions of our regions, and the emotions tied to wearing a saree,” Padmanabhan says.

“Seeing our creations embraced globally reaffirms our belief that the language of a saree is universal — it speaks of beauty, belonging, and culture, no matter where it’s worn.”

From a single store in India to wardrobes around the world, Prashanti Sarees’ journey has been a beautiful story of tradition meeting technology, with Cashfree Payments ensuring that the final step of every saree purchase is as seamless as the drape itself.