Snapdeal, India’s leading value commerce platform, has joined hands with BOB Financial and NPCI to launch a co-branded contactless RuPay credit card that aims to popularise the adoption & usage of credit cards among the growing number of online buyers from India’s smaller cities and towns. The co-branded credit card will be equipped with contactless features and will be offered on the RuPay platform.

As a Bharat-focused e-commerce company, Snapdeal receives more than 86% of its orders from outside metro cities, with more than 72% of its orders come from buyers living in Tier 2+ cities & towns, each with a population of less than 1 million (also referred to as “Bharat). Snapdeal’s core target audience is the value-seeking, middle-income, price-conscious buyers who predominantly live in the smaller cities of India.

BOB Financial Solutions Limited (BFSL), is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of Baroda (BoB), one of India’s largest public sector banks. Established in 1994, BFSL issues Bank of Baroda credit cards,  with its key differentiator being simple, easy-to-understand products that are fairly priced and efficiently serviced.

RuPay is the first-of-its-kind Global Card payment network from India, with wide acceptance at ATMs, POS devices, and e-commerce websites. RuPay is conceived and operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organisaton that powers retail payments in the country.

The Snapdeal-BoB co-branded contactless card, powered by RuPay will be rolled out to users by March 2022 and will provide a range of reward points and other benefits to the cardholders - both while they shop on Snapdeal and also when they use the card at other online and offline transaction points.

“We are particularly delighted to partner with BOB Financial and NPCI for the launch of this credit card. Just like Snapdeal, both Bank of Baroda & RuPay have a deep connect with users in Bharat. The synergies of this partnership will help accelerate the adoption of digital payments, especially amongst users living beyond India’s metros and Tier 1 cities”, said Himanshu Chakrawarti, President Snapdeal Limited.

“We are pleased to partner with Snapdeal in our shared objective of making credit card payments popular and rewarding for a large number of new users, who are now getting familiar and comfortable with online shopping options. We continue to acquire more customers from non-metros and other smaller locations and believe that Snapdeal’s close connect with buyers in those locations, along with Bank of Baroda’s stature and distribution strength will provide the right opportunity to promote credit card usage among new users”, said Shailendra Singh, MD & CEO, BFSL

Nalin Bansal, Chief of Corporate & Fintech Relationships and Key Initiatives, NPCI said, “We are delighted to associate with BOB Financial and Snapdeal to facilitate the issuance of co-branded Contactless credit cards on the RuPay platform for Snapdeal’s value-conscious buyers. Through this partnership, digital consumers will be able to own and experience the power of RuPay Contactless Credit Card fulfilled through an efficient and quick onboarding experience.”

The partnership between Bank of Baroda, NPCI & Snapdeal brings together parties with a strong understanding of digitally-evolving Indian consumers. Between April 2018 - September 2021, more than 50 million (Mn) unique customers have shopped one or more times on Snapdeal. A pioneer in the space of credit cards, BOB Financial offers an array of credit cards, catering to all segments of customers. RuPay cards are issued by more than 1,100 banks which include Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks, Regional Rural and Co-Operative Banks. NPCI Tokenization System (NTS) will support the tokenization of RuPay cards to further enhance the safety of customers and provide a seamless shopping experience to consumers. The futuristic RuPay On-the-Go solutions will enable effortless contactless payments for day-to-day use.