Flipkart, the Indian ecommerce retailer and marketplace owned by Walmart, has introduced ‘Cardless Credit’ which will enable customers to get instant credit of up to Rs 60,000 (which is about £630GBP) when they go shopping on marketplace.
Part of the purpose of this new product is to offer credit more easily than other financial institutions in India. It remarkable to note that, according to Flipkart, in a country of over one billion people that only about 20 million have credit cards. The Indian economy is still wedded to cash and cheques and credit applications are an involved, time -consuming process.
Flipkart promises that shoppers will get some form of credit, however small, if they apply and the decision will be made using their previous buyer behaviour, which will be advantageous to loyal customers who don’t have a credit record.
Close to 45 million customers on our platform do not have formal access to credit and a good portion of this is emerging from tier II, III towns. Cardless Credit is a step in the direction to make e-commerce more inclusive and help customers with small ticket credit line while they make a purchase at Flipkart.
– Ravi Garikipati, senior vice president and head of Fintech, Flipkart
Lending to shoppers on the marketplace is a win-win for Flipkart. Not only do they get a little back in interest on the relatively modest loans but the money is guaranteed to be spent with them therefore boosting their sales volumes. It’s also good news for merchants because it means shoppers have money to spend with them too.
The timing is also significant with the Big Billion Day (BBD) event returning this year with deep discounts across the shop with a focus in 2018 on household appliances. Big Billion Day is scheduled to return between the 1st and 4th of October and forms part of the gift buying seasoning advance of Diwali.
