Point-of-sale lending can be the next big thing

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ePayLater was founded in December 2015 by Aurko Bhattacharya, Uday Somayajula and Akshat Saxena with an aim to optimize the digital payments experience to make it seamless, reliable and convenient for users. ePayLater as a platform offers the simplest possible checkout experience, which provides customers with the ability to conclude a transaction with just a click of the mouse or a tap of the touch screen.

In an exclusive interview, Akshat Saxena, Co-Founder, ePayLater, shares more details about ePayLater, and why it is called a ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ solution.

A: The idea behind starting the company was to use data science and new-age technologies to solve real-life challenges and bridge the credit divide that exists in India today. By relying on alternate sources of data, ePayLater was founded to make credit digital, inclusive, convenient, real-time, and available at all points of sale. Customers can get a credit limit in real-time, and use it to “Book/Buy Now” and “Pay Later”, irrespective of their geographical presence.

Once signed up, an individual can avail a credit limit of upto Rs. 20,000 and small businesses can avail credit limits upto Rs. 5,00,000. A 14-day interest-free period is provided from the date of purchase to settle the payment. We have seen a growth of over 22 times in the last one year, in terms of monthly volumes.

A: I think that the uniqueness lies in the concept itself. ePayLater is primarily an innovative digital method of using credit for making payments. It aims to make credit more accessible and convenient for the growing population of India. In our case, we have built a product that serves the whole spectrum of customers. - urban, rural and even NTC (New to Credit).

What makes the use of ePayLater more convenient, quick and seamless for users is that they needn’t type in their bank account/card details or use other modes of payment during the check-out process. The transaction can be completed with just a tap. Further, the users can easily make the repayment at a later date through simple and minimal online steps.

In a nutshell, ePayLater’s benefits are threefold - First, it's Buy Now, Pay Later functionality; second, the enabling of a single-tap checkout process; and third, its ability to safeguard consumer information from unnecessary dissemination.

A: There are two major product lines of the company -

i) For our B2C segment, we provide short term credit at the point of sale for consumers shopping for their personal needs. ePayLater has partnered with IRCTC, PVR, MakeMyTrip, Yatra, EaseMyTrip, Tata Croma, Travelyaari among many others. It is also India’s first UPI powered credit solution. Customers can also use their credit limit to transact on merchants that accept UPI. Currently, ePayLater UPI can be used on Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Swiggy, Uber to name a few.

ii) For our B2B segment, we provide short term credit to individual retailers for their business needs. This allows businesses to continue providing services to their customers and achieve higher sales through faster inventory churns. Currently, ePayLater has partnered with leading retailers such as Metro Cash and Carry, Future Retail to name a few and is continuously increasing its footprint across the FMCG sector.

A: Despite the great strides being made by the economy and therefore retail consumption, the credit penetration remained abysmally low. Currently, the availability of credit at the point of sale is more or less absent for a vast majority in India, especially when the latter is digital e.g. e-Commerce portals. A number of people, despite being creditworthy haven’t had a way to instantaneously acquire a credit instrument at the point of sale itself and conveniently transact then and thereon. However, with a continuous ingress of a younger working population coupled with poor penetration of credit cards, the need for digital credit is on an unprecedented rise. With a credit card penetration of less than 4% in a population of over 130 crores, we see a huge headroom for growth.

We also see business credit as a major thrust area, as there lies a huge unmet demand for easy and formal credit. India has over 50 million SMEs and less than 10% have access to credit. Many of them are centered around rural and semi-urban regions and have nil to little history on credit bureaus. As a result, a vast segment of these is still unbanked and untouched by any form of formal/bank credit. Adding to their woes - many lack sufficient documentation which does not make the process any easier. We believe solving the said problem would unlock the true business potential of micro-entrepreneurs across the country.