HDFC Bank is all set to become an online shopping mart that sells clothes, groceries, shoes and other lifestyle products right on its website. This way, it is aiming to provide its customers the best possible deals from the e-commerce portals such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon.
As the e-commerce industry has witnessed a rapid growth, this move that will be made by HDFC will be a great one on the progress of the lender. HDFC is the second largest private sector lender in the country, added a senior executive.
Regarding this, Parag Rao, Senior Executive Vice President and Business Head of Merchant Acquiring Services and Card Payment Products, HDFC Bank claimed that they are a large retail and payment bank witnessing 30 percent to 40 percent of the customer spends on the e-commerce industry via their credit and debit cards. As a large bank, the firm has thought to be innovative by giving their customers an option to shop for a slew of products on the bank’s website and also to get offers. They will also bring preferential treatment that will help to increase the stickiness of the customers.
However, the bank will not sell goods directly via its website as it is not permitted. For this reason, HDFC has partnered with grocery, bill payment, travel, shopping and hotel sites. The SmartBuy will act as a platform to the customers and it will help them get better facilities and deals.
The move of Central Bank to license the niche payment banks has resulted in an increased focus on the digital banking segment. Banks such as HDFC, ICICI and Axis are ensuring that their transactions are not cancelled by the third party websites as it will result in a loss of customers.
Aditya Puri, Managing Director and Chief Executive Offer at HDFC Bank has been pushing the digital imitative since December last year. The firm has tried out concepts such as personal loan approval in 20 seconds and a new wallet facility on mobiles to store credit and debit cards virtually.
