Shopclues rolls out easy loans to sellers through tie-up with Indifi

With the intention of providing easy finance to its sellers, Shopclues has entered in a strategic relationship with Indifi Technologies. Indifi, an SME (small and medium enterprise) funding enabler, will extend working capital loans to Shopclues’ sellers.

Shopclues’ seller support

Shopclues has extended support in different ways to its sellers in the past.

• In June 2015, the company introduced ‘Capital Wings’, a program to aid sellers with working capital. The program gives loans of up to Rs. 1 crore without collateral and quick approvals.

• In October 2015, it introduced a reward scheme for sellers who came up with unique ideas. Titled ‘The next big e-preneur’, the five sellers selected in the two subsequent months would win a share in Rs. 1 crore.

• In December 2015, it opened a Sellers’ Club, where sellers could share information on the ‘how to’ of online selling. New sellers could seek guidance from experienced ones on how to get things done.

• In February this year, it introduced an interactive app for sellers with tips on how to sell better. The app also allowed the sellers to interact with the buyers.

Shopclues and Indifi

The latest tie-up with Indifi will boost the Capital Wings program, said Radhika Aggarwal, co-founder of Shopclues. She said, “The association with Indifi will help the Capital Wings initiative of ShopClues offer loans to its partners and help them boost their business.

ShopClues has a seller base of over 3,50,000 SME retailers who can benefit tremendously with the ready access to debt financing that our association with Indifi will provide them.”

Indifi will extend loans to sellers through its lender base to help sellers with their inventory and to expand their business. Emphasizing on their thrust towards small businesses, Alok Mittal, co-founder and CEO of Indifi said, “Our partnership with Shopclues creates a seamless platform for ecommerce sellers, as well as the data infrastructure to enable strong credit quality for lenders.”

Wooing sellers

All leading marketplaces are working towards increasing their GMV, and towards profitability. This can happen only with the sellers’ collective efforts. Most marketplaces are therefore offering support, incentives and loans to their sellers. Amazon offers sell abroad and fulfilment by Amazon to make things easy for its sellers. Flipkart is encouraging sellers to cut down their procurement time by elevating their status.