NEW DELHI: This festive season, if cash crunch is keeping you away from that new smartphone or big LED TV, don’t fret. India’s largest online retailers, Amazon and
Flipkart, have rolled out a host of
finance options, including an interest-free credit access of up to Rs 60,000, which people can
avail of to shop on these platforms.
While e-tailers would earlier offer huge discounts and deals to coax customers to shop online this season, with the year’s biggest sales of these ecommerce companies — Amazon Great Indian Festival and Flipkart Big Billion Days —around the corner, the carrot is credit.
“Innovative payment solutions are among the most important initiatives to bring the next 100 million customers online,” said
Manish Tiwary, VP of category management, at Amazon India.
Consumers can use Flipkart and Amazon’s mobile apps to access the credit amount. After signing up, they can see how much credit has been approved for them after entering their PAN and Aadhaar numbers. The amount that is approved instantly will depend on the consumer’s shopping pattern and payment history on these platforms.
“In my case, I got a credit of Rs 50,000 on Amazon,” said Dola Majumdar, a New Delhi-based media executive. “I used it to shop for shirts for my father and I plan to pay back in EMIs.”
Other than the card-less credit line, e-tailers have thrown in debit-card equated monthly installments (EMIs), no-cost EMIs and buyback guarantees this year to help more people make high-value purchases on their platforms.
