In the fiercely competitive world of e-commerce, merchants constantly seek ways to stand out, capture attention, and convert visitors into loyal customers. The Affordability Suite, traditionally known as a tool for individuals, has the potential to revolutionize how merchants approach customer engagement, conversions, and long-term relationships.
We at Plural are constantly innovating to bring new features for OEMs and merchants so they can increase sales and grow their business. Plural’s Affordability Suite helps brands not only increase sales but also build lasting connections with customers.
Brand EMI is a unique product that we at Plural have built. Brand EMI applies to items sold by the brand on its e-store or other marketplaces. As part of the Brand EMI program, brands and issuers together can contribute part of the discount or subvent interest for EMI transactions. Now we have brought something new to the table to improve user and brand experience.
Let’s take an example, the OnePlus e-store wants to sell its new range of OnePlus 9 series phones on 6 months EMI (10% interest) with instant cashback of ₹999, Plural has the necessary tech infrastructure to facilitate the payments and settlement piece. We can configure the cashback on our EMI system. The customer gets instant cashback and OnePlus will get the settlement on T+1 after all deductions.
Let’s deep dive into how this new program is a big boost to what we at Plural are trying to achieve with OEM/issuer funded offers. Plural processes the cashback (commonly referred to as additional cashback) amount that is typically offered by brands (and sometimes co-funded by brands and banks) to end customers on the purchase of products. Due to the complex nature of financial transactions involved in the background, currently the end customer gets the cashback amount 90 days after the transaction. This is not an ideal user experience first plus additional ops bandwidth is needed on the merchant side for recon.
We have tried to solve this by working with OEM partners to overhaul this entire process. The ideal experience is to provide customers with instant gratification. We have recently launched an instant cashback program where the cashback amount is instantly transferred to the customer at the point of purchase.
Think of a scenario like this. Let’s say Samsung is running a 6 months EMI offer with instant cashback of ₹1,999 for its new phone Galaxy S23 which costs ₹79,999. If the customer chooses this EMI plan and checks out on Flipkart, the customer will only pay ₹78,000 at checkout which later gets converted into EMI for 6 months. Plural will then settle the cashback amount of ₹1,999 to the merchant on t+1. Plural will then invoice Samsung to pay the cashback funded by them. Here is how it will all look :
Product Amount : ₹79,999
Cashback Amount : ₹1,999
Auth amount : ₹78,000
Total Payable for EMI Plan (at 10 %) ₹80,291 (with cashback)
₹82,348 (without cashback)
Both the parties in the financial transaction are greatly benefited by this new setup. The customer gets instant gratification and the merchant gets the full amount the next day, making this program a huge game changer. With the new program, we ensure customers benefit instantly and the merchants save several manhours which translates to several million dollars when you do this at scale.
If your business is looking for payment solutions and increasing conversions, reach out to us to learn how our affordability solutions can help you.
Amrita Konaiagari is a Marketing Manager at Plural by Pine Labs and Editor of the Plural blog. She has over 10 years of marketing experience across Media & Tech industries and holds a Master’s degree in Communication and Journalism. She has a passion for home décor and is most definitely a dog person.
