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India, August 29, 2016: Lendingkart Group has announced a strategic partnership with Unicommerce, the Delhi-based multichannel order fulfillment platform. The partnership will enable Unicommerce’s consumer base to get access to collateral-free working capital loans through Lendingkart Group’s NBFC within 72 hours of application at a discounted rate. Both players make an ideal synergistic match as they have been closely involved with SME merchants and understand the immense potential that lies untapped in this segment due to inadequate financial support.

The tie-up between Lendingkart Group and Unicommerce is aimed to provide working capital loans to Unicommerce retailers. The technology-backed Lendingkart Group’s NBFC enables loan disbursement process that comprises minimal paperwork and offers collateral-free loans to online retailers within 72 hours. It assesses the creditworthiness of a candidate through API scrutiny and online data scraping to ensure credibility rather than conventional methods that promote red-tapism. The swift assessment process takes a few hours and NBFC ensures that loan amount reaches the borrower within 2-3 days of the loan application. Unicommerce retailers will be offered discounted working capital loans enabling them to increase their inventory, pay for their liabilities and scale up their businesses.

At the announcement, Harshvardhan Lunia, Co-Founder and CEO, Lendingkart Technologies, said, “There are massive growth prospects for Indian retailers within the rapidly changing retail scenario of the country. Businesses often register losses and face challenges related to cash flows owing to their capital deficits. The tie-up with Unicommerce will help the Group to eliminate such challenges for its customer base and will moreover, enable retailers to increase their efficiency, scalability, and profitability with quick and easy working capital loans.”

Ankit Pruthi, CEO, Unicommerce said, “We understand that working capital finance is one of the key needs of SMEs in growing their business, and we believe that this partnership with Lendingkart Group will further boost our customers’ business. We are already helping the SMEs to improve their online sales through our product, and with this partnership, we are hoping to provide more avenues for growth to our customers.”

Lendingkart has developed technology tools, to provide lending solutions to lenders, which utilizes a unique mix of Big Data analytics, decision science, and other proxies to derive credit comfort and assess the creditworthiness of small business owners. Most of the credit risk analysis at the Group’s NBFC, is done digitally so that loans can be disbursed within 72 hours from the time of application.

About Lendingkart Group
Lendingkart Technologies is a fin-tech startup in the working capital space. It has developed technology tools based on big data analytics that facilitates lenders to evaluate borrowers’ credit worthiness. Aadri Infin Limited, a Lendingkart Group Company, is a non-deposit taking NBFC, offering small business loans for SMEs in India. The NBFC aims to transform small business lending by providing easy access to credit for SMEs. The NBFC uses technology and analytics tools, analyzing thousands of data points from various data sources to assess the creditworthiness of small businesses rapidly and accurately. Lendingkart Group aims to make working capital finance available at the fingertips of entrepreneurs, so that they can focus on business instead of worrying about the gaps in their cash-flows. We are currently based in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Mumbai, but have a service reach across India. To know more, please visit http://lendingkart.com/

About Unicommerce
The SaaS based multichannel order fulfillment platform allows ecommerce merchants selling on multiple marketplaces like Snapdeal, Amazon, Jabong, Flipkart, eBay and so on, to manage their entire inventory and order fulfillment process through one single platform. In a short span of time, Unicommerce has built a strong customer base of 10,000+ sellers in more than 220 cities including big brands such as Monte Carlo, Swiss Military, Classic Polo, House of Anita Dongre, Reliance, Mahindra Retail, Carat Lane, Raymond etc. Ecommerce sellers love this product, as it helps them grow their sales, reduce costs and improve their seller ratings. For further information about the company or the product, please visit https://unicommerce.com/

Economic Times: Lendingkart Group Partners with Unicommerce to Facilitate Easy Loans to its SME Customers

Business Standard: Lendingkart Group Partners with Unicommerce to Facilitate Easy Loans to its SME Customers

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India is progressing but the Indian buyer’s mentality is essentially still old school. Not much progress there. I too belonged exactly to this frame until some time back.

Earlier whenever I thought that I’d pick something online, I’d visit some forums and then drop the idea altogether. Never thought – I would buy my new phone online

I’d love to walk you through some of my concerns while purchasing online –

What if old items were passed on as new?

This was one of my most grounded fears. Now I must say that this was also the most baseless.

Reputed online stores go length and beyond to give the best of all products to their customers. They offer a guarantee on their products. Also they don’t just mention informally. There are proper disclaimers that clearly state the status of the offered products. And nowadays, online sellers are going far and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction. They are enhancing their efficiency with order management software to retain and attract customers.  

Some stores do offer used products too. But you’d find it clearly mentioned in the product page.

Whom will I chase if I need a replacement?

You could need a replacement for several reasons. Either the product may not be good or it may be different from what you expected. With physical stores, you know whom to reach out to if you need a replacement.

However, on ecommerce marketplaces, several retailers offer their products. I was afraid that if I picked a random seller from that platform and they shipped a rather damaged phone to me, how will I ever get a replacement?.

This again is not a problem at all. You can file your complaints through the central platform itself.

Each sale is ultimately the responsibility of the online platform. They validate the entire process.

If you have spent some time in the customer support section of such platforms like Amazon and Ebay, you’ll see that they are available for contacting almost through all means. Be it through the phone, email or live chat, they are there to hear if you have any problems at all.

You’ll be amazed to find them to be even more responsive than your traditional retail outlets.

What if I am credited the bill, but I never receive my purchase?

This again didn’t look like a problem once I started exploring the options in online buying. Cash On Delivery safeguards you against all chances of frauds. Pay once you have your goods delivered to you. You get the COD option for almost all major products. Online tailors are approaching the number of good logistics partners. Moreover, smart sellers use supply chain management software which allows them to track the order status as well as delivery so that the customers can receive their orders at the earliest.

How can I wait for so long?

First, you don’t have to wait forever.

Second, you save days of research by looking up online. All online platforms give you the means of comparing your final shortlisted options. You can compare them side by side and take your decision.

In fact, they suggest phones based on the models that you were initially searching for. In my case, I dropped the model that I intended to buy initially. I picked from one of the suggested models.

Besides, leading online stores are prompt with the delivery and tell you exactly when to expect your parcel. Also, they deliver sooner than they promise.

How could I buy – without physically seeing it?

This is entirely a subject of preference. Some people are indeed very particular about this. I too, was. But then I had repeatedly been hearing my friends yapping about how great their online shopping experiences had been. I didn’t want to feel left out (read: outdated).

There’s no texture really to feel about a phone. The product pages are made pretty explicit to cover even such details. Whether a product has a plastic body or a metallic one, you can find very articulated information over the product page.

All the details that you would need to make your purchase decisions are presented to you in the products specs.

There are several images too along with the dimensions.

The most useful of all are the user reviews, stuck right at the end of each product page. Learning from the existing users is one of the best ways of knowing what to expect from your purchase.

You’ll be amazed to see your buying decisions get influenced by these.

What if the Warranty goes void?

Each brand has its list of official vendors. Official vendors are the retailers or retailers that are authorized by the brand to sell its products.

Companies often offer exactly the same warranty to both its online and offline vendors.

A customer has to be careful to buy a product only from a registered vendor. Sellers often certify when they are officially affiliated with a brand.

I verified this while buying my phone. I strongly suggest that you must also always verify if you are indeed buying from the authorized sellers.

How do I trust if, right products will reach me

 Such concerns are only based upon the inherent hesitation to buy online. Online buyers get complete access to raise their voices in the support forums.

It’s really not possible to sell substandard stuff online. There are extensive review boards. You can check them to see that consumers can report their problems and they can do so at a mega-scale.

Such exposure makes cases of fraud or duping almost impossible.

An Indian purchasing cycle can never really be complete without some bargaining.

But online stores already offer products at highly discounted rates. You don’t have to budge any stubborn seller to get a discount that you are entitled to. 

Imagine shipping in a product for far less than what you would have traditionally spent. That too, without bargaining.

Just in case, this discount is bugging you, understand that online stores can afford such heavy discounts as they do business on a very big scale.

They operate very similar to your traditional wholesale market. You save a great deal on the same product if you buy from a wholesale store. What you must remember is that you get exactly the same quality but for a lesser price. 

Just like the case of an online store, you get exactly the same quality but at a discounted rate.

Guidelines to buy online –

• Look for your product
• See which online stores are selling it
• Scan through the suggested products – there may be some interesting stuff there
• Finalize
• Look for the vendors selling it
• Screen out the official vendors from this list
• Check their reviews
• Compare prices and ORDER

That’s all that has to be done. Watch your product get delivered to your doorstep.

The post How I Bought My New Mobile Online…! appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Dear Online Sellers,

E-commerce is one of the best things that has happened to us in recent times. And the party has just begun. We (your customers) are warming up to it, enjoying it. We recognize the important part that retailers play to make it happen.We no more have to go in a brick and mortar shop to buy the products. We get to see a large collection of products from different brands. But still, we feel you guys need to wake up and smell the coffee for the irritating things that you are unknowingly doing. Why ? Well..read on

We need opinions while shopping online.

We shop together not alone! 

For missing this obvious thing. Shopping is not a job to be done for me. It’s more of fun time with friends. While shopping offline in an actual market place, we never go alone. Asking for suggestions or opinion from friends and family is very common.

Similarly, while shopping online I would like to share the items to be bought with my friends and family members to ask for their views on them. Though it’s not necessary, yet it makes me feel great to buy something that everybody appreciates or likes.

‘Social media Share Buttons’ fulfills this need of the customers like me, and helps me to decide on the best from the rest by taking the views of my near and dear ones. As a matter of fact, it not only benefits us the customers but also the sellers. It promotes your business indirectly by giving your products some free publicity.

That’s why I find it so surprising when I come across e-shops without share buttons below product like in the image below.

Why treat us different from your Shop Customers?

Even we want to see the product inside out before buying it.

When deciding on buying online, images are the only way to have an idea of the product that I would like to buy but can’t practically touch and feel. Insufficient number of images unnecessarily stirs up doubt in our mind whether the product is of good quality or not. If you think, giving insufficient product images will create curiosity that will induce us to buy. Then I am extremely sorry to let you know that it’s extremely opposite.

It’s very annoying to any customer, who wants to buy the product but due to lack of product images he or she can’t take a decision and then drops the idea of buying it altogether.

Do you really think – anyone in her sane mind would actually buy this above purse just looking at 2 photos. 

I would like to know what it looks like from inside. What color, the arrangement and all. But I cannot. Believe me – two to three additional images will definitely give you better ROI on the money you are already paying to the photographer. By running an online business you are already saving up huge money which otherwise would be spent on rent, electricity, this and that. Why not invest that saved up money in such things which convert visitors into buyers.

Patience is not a virtue for online buyers

70% of Online buyers fall in age group 18-35

 Patience is not a virtue for this specific age group at all. For trying my patience. “We” are an impatient lot and hate it when someone asks us to wait. Now think of a situation where you have placed an order for some essential goods and not receiving on time.

As a seller, you are also aware that the young generation is your prime online buyers. Unlike our grandparents and parents who are known for their patience level, we are just the opposite to them. We want everything before time. Waiting to receive longer than the estimated time is extremely exhausting for us. It creates a negative impression about brand in our minds.

This is even more frustrating if we have to return something bought online. If I had bought it in real shops, I could just go to that shop the same day and return it if I am unhappy about it. But if shopped online, it’s nothing less than a nightmare.

Don’t create a false sense of urgency

We are impatient but not idiots- we ‘ll buy when we have to!

There are some e-commerce sites which will start the timer of say 15 mins or so, as soon as you add something to the cart. They expect you to purchase it before the timer expires. Such time limited shopping cart is really annoying. It’s like creating a false sense of urgency to the customers. Besides, it doesn’t allow me to choose many product items to keep in the same cart to buy together under one cart.

While shopping online, I go through a number of options given there to choose from. It takes a few minutes to do so. In this scenario, if my previously saved item gets deleted after a short span of time (once the timer expires), then you can imagine how irritating it would be for me. It restricts me from buying all my favorite items under one cart at one time.

Besides, I have to purchase every item individually providing my bank details against each purchase. This is not cool at all.

Deliver what we ordered. No Excuses !!

For sheer negligence. Many a times, I have received products that are of different colors or different size from what I had ordered. It is very frustrating for any customer when he or she gets something different from what they ordered. Particularly, when it happens on garments.

“I invest a lot more time than the usual customers to choose any product or item. In this case, when I receive a product that is different from what I am expecting, one can image what would be my reaction”

What’s worse, some e-commerce sites blatantly refuse to exchange it. They don’t even let you return it. What am I going to do with that garment or thing. It will just sit in my closet everyday reminding me what a bad experience I had with your site. And of course it will become a good conversation topic with my friends and family whom I will share what an ordeal I had to go through, when I did business with you. I am sure you don’t want that to happen. Do you?

I just hope that after these loud wake up calls you have woken up to some ground realities. If you improve on these, you will definitely receive tight hugs from all of us instead of rude wake up calls!

A suggestion I want to give, why don’t you guys look for some ecommerce management software, which will look after your entire ecommerce operations brilliantly.

Unicommerce is one of the pioneer in the supply chain management operations. It has recently been tied up with Chumbak, Ginesys, Forever New, and much more.

The post What Online Buyers Actually Want from Ecommerce Sellers ? appeared first on unicommerce.com.