Samsung expands partnership with Benow to cover TV, fridge

Samsung on Wednesday said it has expanded its partnership with digital payments platform Benow from smartphones to consumer electronics which will now allow consumers across India to buy TVs, refrigerators and other digital appliances online from their neighbourhood stores.

This platform will allow thousands of offline retailers across the country to sell Samsung consumer electronics products online without making any upfront investment, reaching out to a larger set of consumers.

Around 5,000 offline retailers selling Samsung consumer electronics products have already signed up and more are expected to join in the coming weeks, the South Korean tech giant said.

The initiative will allow consumers to make payments through the method of their choice -- cash on delivery, credit card, debit card, easy EMI, etc.

"Our partnership with Benow will not only enable consumers to purchase their favourite Samsung appliances from the safety and comfort of their homes, but will also help our retail partners expand their consumer base and make them online-enabled," Raju Pullan, Senior Vice President, Consumer Electronics Business, Samsung India, said in a statement.

"On our O2O (online to offline) platform, 37 per cent of the demand is for televisions driven by higher screen time while at home, both for entertainment and education, and 36 per cent of demand is for refrigerators, whereby consumers are looking for higher capacity storage," he added.

Samsung, which rolled out the current online to offline model last month, said its partnership with Benow will further strengthen its O2O strategy, providing benefits of both offline and online platforms to the consumer.

How does the new platform work?

If a retailer wants to become part of the new digital platform, Samsung will share the details of the interested retailer with Benow, which will on-board the retailer and send a digital registration link on his/her registered mobile number.

The retailer then verifies the details, uploads his KYC (know your customer) documents and goes live instantly.

On the Benow app, retailers can create their own online catalogue of Samsung consumer electronics products they want to sell and then share the link to the catalogue with consumers through SMS, WhatsApp, and email or even through social media platforms.

Consumers can select the products of their choice from the catalog shared by a particular retailer and place an order using the online link.

This triggers a notification to the retailer who gets the details of the consumers on the Benow app.

Retailers can then get in touch with the consumer, finalise the deal and generate a payment link through Benow.

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Consumers can choose from payment methods such as cash on delivery, credit card, debit card, easy EMI, etc.

On completion of the transaction, invoice and charge slips are shared with both the consumer and the retailer, who then initiates delivery of the Samsung consumer electronics product to the consumer.