India settled leading value commerce platform, Snapdeal has announced its partnership with Cashfree Payments, to offer instant processing of refunds against Cash on Delivery (CoD) orders.
Traditionally, processing refunds for CoD orders has been a multi-step and time-consuming process, which includes manually adding the customer’s bank account details, onboarding the customer as a payee, and tracking as well as reconciling refunds batch-wise. With the integration of Cashfree Payments’ product ‘Cashgram’, Snapdeal will be able to process refunds with only the customer’s mobile number or email address, with credits automatically flowing to the customer’s UPI-linked bank account, or wallet.
Online shopping is getting increasingly more popular, especially among customers from smaller cities. A recent RedSeer report commissioned by Snapdeal has highlighted this rapid growth of online customers in India’s 2+ cities and towns, who are expected to triple in size from approx. 78 mn in 2021 to nearly 256 mn by 2026.
A significant proportion of buyers from smaller cities prefer to pay in cash for their online purchases. For this cohort of buyers, the ease and speed of getting refunds for orders that they may choose to return is a key consideration. With the integration of ‘Cashgram’ by Cashfree Payments, Snapdeal now offers a seamless and fast refund process, where customers can get their refund instantly or later as per their own choice, either to their bank accounts or to their preferred wallets.
Speaking on the partnership, Sarvartha Kanchan, Vice President – Supply Chain Management and Customer Experience, Snapdeal said, “We endeavor to provide a delightful experience to our users at all touchpoints. For our users, who prefer the convenience of cash on delivery, we wanted to provide an equally efficient, yet secure refund process. Through our integration with Cashfree Payments, we offer our buyers the convenience of directly adding the required details to their “Cashgram” and receiving their refunds when and how they want, including on weekends and also outside banking hours.
Commenting on the collaboration, Reeju Datta, Co-Founder, Cashfree Payments said, “In a customer journey, providing a seamless payment experience is critical. And issuing refunds, especially to Cash on Delivery (CoD) customers, has been one of the concerns for e-commerce businesses. We are delighted to partner with Snapdeal to enable a seamless CoD refund experience for their customers. An instant, hassle-free refund experience, combined with consistent and accurate communication to the customer is going to be a breakthrough and a way forward from all future payments.”
