Freecharge launches Escrow services

NEW DELHI: India’s digital payments platform Freecharge has unveiled a buyer protection service by launching escrow facility for merchants and customers. The escrow service mitigates risk of unsuccessful shopping experiences and safeguards customers’ money by withholding funds till they receive the right product.

The first merchant for this service, Shopo, has integrated Freecharge wallet on its app to offer escrow protection to its buyers and sellers. After buyers place orders by paying through Freecharge, the seller is notified that the buyer has completed the payment, and money is on hold in escrow. Once the order is delivered to the buyer, the money is automatically released to the seller. In case the order is not shipped or delivered within the stipulated time, the money is refunded to the buyer’s wallet.

Commenting on the announcement, Govind Rajan, CEO, Freecharge said, “ Shopo wanted to create a digital payments ecosystem for its merchants and create an environment of trust between buyers and sellers. With Freecharge, Shopo will not only enable digital payments, but create a secure escrow gateway which will also safeguard customer’s money and ensure a seamless shopping experience. In the coming months, we plan to expand this offering to a widespread merchant network and further influence customers shopping habits to move from cash to digital payments.”

Sandeep Komaravelly, Senior Vice President, Shopo said, “Shopo is India’s biggest open C2C marketplace with 2, 00,000 sellers. Enabling Buyer protection through Escrow services enabled by Freecharge, will immensely help in building the trust and convenience between the Buyers and sellers. We are also making it very convenient for sellers to accept online payments through this integration.”

The Freecharge-Shopo partnership is another step to deepen integration across platforms in the Snapdeal ecosystem. With this integration, Freecharge will make inroads to the large customer and merchant base of Shopo. At the same time, Shopo will also get instant access to expand its reach to millions of wallet users who enjoy the convenience and ease of digital payments.