Indian e-commerce powerhouse Flipkart is tying up with financial players to offer credit options for consumers at a time leading up to the country’s annual festive e-commerce shopping season to help bolster sales.
Flipkart said Wednesday it will work with 17 local banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), or, government-certified loan companies, as well as fintech startups to provide credits to over 70 million consumers on its platform.
Through the tie-up, Flipkart is aiming at new-to-credit consumers across the second-most-populous country in Asia. It hopes to give consumers more affordable access to its platform that boasts of more than 250 million product offerings, while also boost up its sales.
“We hope to take the promise of The Big Billion Days to more customers to enable meaningful growth,” Ranjith Boyanapalli, head of Flipkart Fintech and Payments Group said.
Flipkart isn’t alone in ramping up its services and capacity in preparation for the upcoming festive sales season as e-commerce companies expect to see strong consumption rebound from pent-up demand. E-commerce players, big and small, are gearing up for the fray to make it up for their capped businesses as a result of the rampant increase in COVID-19 cases that locked down the whole nation for more than two months earlier this year.
Read this: Indian e-commerce sector could see record sales of USD 7 billion during upcoming festive season
Flipkart’s rival Amazon India has partnered with HDFC Bank and Bajaj Finserv to offer no-cost EMI (equal monthly installment) purchases during the sale period. In addition to this, it will also provide credit buying options on specific products under its ‘Amazon Pay Later’ offering which is supported by IDFC First Bank and Capital Float, a Bengaluru-based NBFC.
COVID-19 has wreaked havoc economically in India, while it also accelerated the nation’s shift to online shopping due to social distancing rules and hygiene concerns.
E-commerce, in addition to edtech, is one of the few sectors that benefited from the new normal of working and studying from home. And despite being still in the middle of the pandemic, a survey shows that Indian consumers are expected to increase their consumption budget from last year owing to factors such as their restrained consumption in the past few months. These consumers are looking for a spending release during the festive season.
