ZestMoney, the fastest-growing AI-driven EMI financing platform in the country, and Pine Labs, one of Asia’s leading merchant commerce platforms, today released the findings from a merchant survey conducted recently where they quizzed retailers on EMI adoption post-COVID-19.
The survey, undertaken during the partial lockdown in May, reveals that, while EMI solutions are seeing a massive demand, traditional consumer financing models have come under severe stress. NBFCs have long relied on agents at stores to offer credit, but restrictions due to COVID-19 are making this model increasingly unattractive now.
By and large, the survey covered offline merchants dealing in electronics and consumer durables. The demand for electronics and household appliances continues to be high.
Here are some highlights of the merchant survey:
- 94% of the surveyed merchants feel digital self-serve EMI solutions will help them in these difficult times
- 72% of retailers were promoting EMI schemes during lockdown at outlets
- 63% of the merchants were doing home deliveries from stores to boost demand
- 85% of the merchants surveyed had finance executives from NBFCs at stores before lockdown
- 60% of retailers say finance agents are not visiting their store’s post lockdown
- 90% of those surveyed are willing to assist customers in availing EMI options themselves
These findings suggest that, while 85% of the surveyed retailers had NBFC finance agents before the lockdown, most of them would prefer to not have them now. This opens a massive opportunity for credit/debit EMI options and fintech players in the ecosystem.
Apart from being contactless, the self-serve model will help free up space within stores and aid faster approvals for EMI financing.
Lizzie Chapman, Co-founder, and CEO, ZestMoney said, “At a time when affordability is all the more crucial, people will turn to EMI financing to meet their needs. COVID has disrupted many traditional models, highlighting the need to go completely digital. In these challenging times, merchants are seeing the value of self-serve models to put their business back on track. At ZestMoney, our focus has always been to build a robust, fully automated tech platform to simplify the entire process for the consumer and merchant network. We hope to leverage our tech capabilities to help them adapt to this shift.”
