In a Zepto Connect webinar, Relationship Manager Kim Yan shone a light on merchants who are using real-time payouts to deliver great payment experiences. Here’s what went down.
Real-time payouts are a proven winner across industries as a driver of great customer and stakeholder experience.
From real-time payments to vets, quick consumer refunds, investment and wagering payouts, as well as insurance claims, real-time payouts have quietly delivered massive impact in the real-time payments space for years now with good reason.
In our Zepto Connect virtual fireside chat with Refundid’s Joel Aaron, Fetch’s Phil Wilson-Brown and Zepto Co-founder Ian Lennie, I enjoyed examining how and why this elegant, versatile solution enables so much satisfaction. Through our 45-minutes together, it became clear to me that, almost regardless of use case, real-time payouts deliver impact in four key ways:
- Innovation
- Customer centricity
- Instant gratification
- Loyalty
Now, you might not have 45-minutes to leisurely consume our entire conversation, so we’ve stitched together two short clips of highlights to help you cut to the chase.
Joel Aaron is Co-founder and Head of Product at Refundid, an Aussie fintech transforming the eCommerce returns and refunds experience.
In this first clip below, Joel touches on personal refunds and returns experiences that birthed the idea behind Refundid, as well as the impact an optimised returns experience can have on overall customer experience, loyalty and retention.
“There's been a big shift for a lot of the retailers we work with, in the way they think about customer retention. They now see returns as the optimal way to retain a customer.
Joel Aaron
Co-founder and Head of Product at Refundid
"The upper funnel part of an ecommerce experience is now heavily optimised to push the customer down the funnel and keep them shopping. But post-purchase is what can make or break the experience, and smart retailers have realised how important it is to optimise that,” he adds.
My favourite part of that clip is Joel describing the joy he feels when fielding the odd end-customer complaint.
“We have instances where customers complain saying they haven't seen their refund yet, and we're like — here it is. It went in so fast that it didn't actually see it. It happens regularly."
Joel Aaron
We don't like negative experiences, but the idea of being able to satisfy those customers instantly, even if they don't even see it, is really, really cool,” he adds.
Phil Wilson-Brown is Co-founder & CEO of Fetch, a rapidly scaling provider of innovative pet health insurance.
In the clip below, Phil dives into Fetch’s unique, real-time payouts use case, and how those payments drive innovation, customer experience and loyalty.
At Fetch’s core sits a simple proposition that Phil succinctly describes.
“I can't think of a reason why, certainly in our space, that you should go to the vet and have coverage and then potentially have to wait weeks to be reimbursed.”
Phil Wilson-Brown
Co-founder & CEO of Fetch
For Fetch, real-time payouts do more than just accelerate a transaction.
“It's odd to say that insurance is an emotional purchase. But Fetch is actually about helping people get their pets back to good health. And so it's actually a very emotional purchase," says Phil.
"The real-time payments piece is a really important part of taking the stress away in a stressful situation. And when we do a great job, it drives a huge amount of loyalty."
Phil Wilson-Brown
This is echoed by Joel who adds, “From our side, it's a no brainer. We see it as a huge loyalty driver with customers.”
I enjoyed hosting and moderating this conversation so much. If you joined us for the session, or have watched the full replay, you’ll know we ventured into other interesting areas of the real-time payments solutions ecosystem, including Zepto Validate with Confirmation of Payee and PayTo.
Hearing the usually prescient Ian Lennie confess to a prediction he got remarkably wrong was a treat.
“I did an interview a few years ago where I confidently said that ecommerce will be the last vertical to adopt real-time payments. I was famously very, very wrong about that."
Ian Lennie
Zepto Co-founder
"As it turns out, PayTo has been getting great traction already in ecommerce,” added Ian.
I’m pleased to say that the proof is in the pudding. Well, to be more precise, it’s in the 2nd edition of Zepto’s PayTo Index report.
The report shows that PayTo payments in online retail have surged more than 300%, and reveals that PayTo’s account-on-file method is emerging as the practical alternative to the major card schemes for online retailers.
Why? Because it's delivering lower transaction fees, improved cash flow, and a better post-purchase experience.
The author
