Cash back websites tap the Indian shopper\'s discount psyche

With eCommerce brands realising the contribution of Cash back sites, cash-back offers have become a deciding factor for customers when choosing between the various eCommerce brands in India.

Also, customers now expect to earn cash back, irrespective of the product they are purchasing online. Retailer caught up with Sumit Gupta, Co-founder at Dealsnprice.com to talk at length about the 'spend less and save more' phenomenon.

Talk to us about Dealsnprice.com's business model in detail.

We are a "Savings" Platform for the end customers. We help consumers to find best coupons or deals, compare prices across eCommerce players, and earn up to 50 per cent extra cash back on each transaction they do online. Our mission is to continuously help consumers to spend less and save more.

How do you work with the eCommerce companies? Explain to us the terms and conditions.

We work on Cost Per Click, Cost Per Sale, Cost Per Install, Cost Per Impression, Cost Per Lead etc with eCommerce companies. It depends on the client requirements and focus. Larger players prefer performance-based marketing campaigns based on CPS or CPI basis. I would simply say that the quality of traffic which leads to healthy conversion is the primary condition for the successful completion of any campaign.

I personally feel a lot of things are kept hidden while availing a particular offer on cash back websites (it could be anything; right from 'cash back on minimum amount' to 'cash back only on purchase' etc). What do you have to say to that?

We do not hide any condition from our users for getting the cash back. The only condition is that the product should be delivered and the transaction is completed. We credit the amount of cash back within 24 working hours from the time of the transaction. Because most of the websites have 30 days return policy, the same can be redeemed post completion 30-45 days of the transaction.

What benefits do customers derive out of using such websites?

Any consumer can easily save thousands of rupees every month. The customer does not have to waste his time in researching for coupons and deals or for comparing prices. One can just log in on Dealsnprice.com and get the best offers within a few clicks. Extra cash back earnings of up to 50 per cent can fund his future purchases. The customer actually gets paid to shop!

How do you ensure of taking out a right deal for a customer and not push them with what according to you is a better deal?

We ensure that we list each and every coupon that is available and hence the consumer can easily search what he is looking for. While sending notifications or emailers, we ensure we keep into account the past browsing and shopping data of the consumers which largely chalks out their buying preferences. However, we understand that "Automated Personalisation" is the next big thing and we are working aggressively on our mobile platform which will automatically personalise offers and coupons based on individual needs.

Imagine you are chatting with your friend on SMS and decide to meet over a cup of coffee on MG Road, Gurgaon. In no time, the Dealsnprice App starts sending you the notifications with a 25 per cent discount coupon on a local coffee shop at MG Road, Gurgaon. Isn't that what you needed?

Tell us about your expansion and investment plans? Are you also in the mCommerce space?

It has been a roller coaster ride since we started up in August 2014. We started up as a two people company and have scaled to a 20+ member team in a span of 9 months of operations. The revenue has been growing at a 10X pace on QoQ basis and we have been hell bent on improving our product experience on a continuous basis. 

We are on a hiring spree across all departments. We aspire to be the company with highest levels employee engagement and delight.

We see that around 60 per cent of our current traffic is on Mobile Web. We are aggressively getting into the Native App space and plan to enhance the current value that we offer as a product. However, with increased focus on Mobile Apps among the eCommerce players, the transnational affiliate revenue might go down in short term as no eCommerce App (except Flipkart) has the functionality to track source of transactions done on the App platform.

There are a lot of cash back websites that customers can make use of today to get discounts and compare prices of products, how are you different from them?

There is no other platform which compiles the trio of benefits from coupons, price comparison and cash backs. In fact, looking at our rapid growth, one of our three-year-old competitions into cash back space has moved into price comparison too. Similarly, our extreme focus on mobile platform since first day of our launch has forced another competition to have a mobile site. However, they are struggling to streamline the same. 

Additionally, we have developed a unique price sensitivity matrix which sends "Price Alert" notifications for top selling products in each category. The notification engine is based on the preferences of customers. Currently, we are testing this on electronic categories and will extend this to other categories very soon.

We understand that "Automated Personalisation" is the future of this market. We are aggressively working on the mobile platform which will help us to personalise the deals and offers based on the individual preferences.

When you say you have given 1.5 crores in cash back to customers, what does it mean?

It means that in the last nine months of operations our customers have trusted us as a source of coupons, price comparison and cash backs. It means that in the last nine months we have generated more than 75Cr of GMV for our partner etailers.

We have actually transferred more than Rs. 1.5 Cr into the bank accounts of our consumers on account of cash backs earned on their purchases. The number is all set to multiply in the next few months.