Cash-On-Delivery Was Temporary Phenomenon, Says Sachin Bansal

The demonetisation move by the government has impacted the cash-on-delivery (COD) model of all the leading e-commerce giants such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and ShopClues but they are also being optimistic about the digital and cashless economy towards which India is poised.

Sachin Bansal, executive chairman and co-founder of India’s largest e-commerce platfrom, Flipkart, said, “Cash-on-delivery was a temporary phenomenon. Demonetisation is a wake-up call for people to take up digital payment.”

Terming demonetisation as a ‘bold’ step, he said that this will eventually help in curbing the black money. He said that the intent is good but should have been researched well on grounds as knee jerk reactions are happening.

“Demonetisation has given a chance for the people to make payment through debit, credit cards and digital modes,” said Kunal Bahl, CEO and co-founder of Snapdeal.

“Snapdeal has introduced features such as card-on-delivery and wallet-on-delivery. The COD returns used to be the biggest pain for us,” he added. He said that the even foreign investors are also happy with this demonetisation as this will bring homogeneity.

The COD nearly accounted for 70 per cent of the total transactions and it has come down for Snapdeal after this noteban.

Similarly, Sanjay Sethi of ShopClues said that demonetisation is a part of bigger trinity of ‘JAM’ (Jan-Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile). He said that there has been an off-take of 5-15 per cent items post noteban from smaller towns.

“With demonetisation, more and more hotels are enquiring with us. They want their inventories to get used by using our model, which was not the case earlier,” said Abhinav from OYO Rooms.

The decision to scrap Rs 500 and 1000 notes has been hailed by all the disruptors and see it as the right step towards the initiative of Digital India where all the transaction can be accounted.