Another positive has bucked the trend for digital empowerment – most of the borrowers led by millennials are willing to jump the online loan journey mode versus traditional offline channels for future borrowings.
With the pandemic, we learned a lot about facing adversity and handling the unexpected, which has altered our lifestyle– and many of those changes are here to stay. Here are some of the consumer financial trends for the next year.
- Phygital or Hybrid model – It will be the key to the new normal where digitalization since pandemic has taken over consumers and businesses. For Indian consumers, getting digitally savvy, require the right blend of in-person traditional banking along with convenient digital financial services (O2O approach). For HCIN, this is being achieved with a Digital-first approach through the Phygital model where all our financial services and offerings have been digitized end-to-end including customer and merchant onboarding, online KYC, the loan process and disbursement and collections. Digital services are available on the HCIN website & mobile app. However, along with digital-first, we have the traditional approach of our retail partners or PoS touchpoints and telesales for assisting in the customer journey.
- Offering customers an omnichannel connection with products and services – Create digital financial products designed for customer requirements and available both offline and online. An all-in-one financial services app like Home Credit mobile app for customer acquisition and customer onboarding, display of all financial products. Customers either buy online through a website or an app or walk to the nearest HC partner shop and thereby catering to the emerging online-to-offline (O2O) economy.
- Consumer behaviour – Revival of positive consumer borrowing reflecting sentiments buoyant to economic bounce back. As per How India Borrows 2021 study, consumers transitioning from need-based borrowing to desire-based borrowing as borrowing for meeting household or survival expenses declined sharply and moved to borrow for business requirements or set-up, house renovation, consumer durables purchase.
Another positive has bucked the trend for digital empowerment – most of the borrowers led by millennials are willing to jump the online loan journey mode versus traditional offline channels for future borrowings.
- Partnerships – Building a 360-degree partner network ecosystem for the new and evolved customer’ needs and expectations. Tie up with e-comm platforms or PoS networks and popular leading brands. Eg – Flexmoney tie-up, Instamart, Flipkart for HCIN e-voucher or gift cards.
- Innovative Tech – NBFCs have taken great initiatives in the last two years, making the function more agile and mobile for individuals. With the help of advanced technologies like AI, Automation and Chatbots, the NBFC sector has grown and reduced its dependency on physical kiosks. Adoption of advanced technologies has reduced the cost of NBFC companies in customer acquisition, servicing existing customers, or de-risking the portfolio while trying to overcome the increasing formal credit penetration in a growing economy.
Impactful initiatives such as combating loan frauds, cybercrimes, voice recognition for customers, video interactions will see a whole new horizon. The transparency and security of Blockchain will benefit customers by eliminating manual processes and considerably reducing the time of transactions.
by, Vivek Kumar Sinha, Chief Marketing Officer, Home Credit India
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