It all started in 2015, with an intention to make the best of the cashback market and it’s a reality now! Zingoy has grown over these years to become a leading online platform where you can earn easy and reliable cashback on all your online shopping and buy and sell gift cards. You can also earn cashback on your friends’ online shopping by simply creating your own Zingoy link for a store/offer/product and sharing it with them. Having offers and discounts from more than 200 stores including Amazon India, Flipkart, Paytm and BookMyShow, the platform has 400-plus merchants registered and almost 300K-plus subscribers using it. Jimish Jobanputra, Co-founder and CTO, Zingoy, reveals more about this platform and the future of cashback industry, in a conversation with Ramesh Kumar Raja. Excerpts:

What is Zingoy all about and how does it work?

Zingoy started in year 2015, with the aim to establish itself as the best cashback platform for online shopping. We have 3 models for our consumers across different verticals. The B2B model is for corporate gifting, while the B2C model is for consumers who shop online. We are also offering C2C model to help users sell unused gift cards with utmost safety and a hassle-free process.

Please tell us about your offerings and how helpful it is for various customer categories to get better deals?

We at Zingoy provide deals, coupon, gift cards and cashback offer on 300+ top merchants across India. Zingoy not only comes with platform that aids users to get cashbacks but also incentivizes or reward its royal customers. Our various categories cater to needs of the consumers from different genres and verticals. We have established ourselves for usage of both corporate house and for individual use as well. Our offerings are perfect for online shoppers and for gifting in affordable and pocket friendly pricing.

What are the unique features that make it different from other cashback platforms?

We are different from others in every aspect. The cashback which Zingoy offers can be transferred to the bank account very easily and directly. We have also incorporated an additional special feature on desktop/laptop version offered by Zingoy called ‘Zinni’. With the help of this smart feature, rather than finding the cashback on the site, users can get the cashback on its own basis their location.

How has been the business so far for you and what are your expectations this festive season?

Zingoy has witnessed huge success and has gained various loyal customers in the past years. There was a slowdown during the pandemic but we have slowly and gradually gained back our phase and rising again. So far, the festive season is going good for Zingoy. We are expecting an increase of 25% in our 2021 sales as compared to last year sales, out of which we have achieved 15% till now.

The COVID-19 pandemic might have been a bad experience for you. Your comment please.

Pandemic has adversely affected all of us, initially for 4-5 months the sales revenues were adversely hit. But as everything is getting back to normal, so are we and currently we have witnessed accelerated growth which is continuously growing.

Who are your targeted customers and what is their engagement/retention rate?

We at Zingoy have been targeting corporates houses and young millennials and shopping buffs who are online shoppers and prefer to shop online most of the times. They tend to be happy with cashbacks we offer and slowly and gradually they attain a permanent spot in list of our loyal customers. In our corporate gift card section, we have 100% retention and in our shopping cashback section we have 70% retention.

How has been the response so far of your app on Google Play? How many downloads it has amassed till date?

We have got good responses from the consumers which are continuously growing. Post pandemic, we have witnessed an increase as people followed social distancing norms but still showered their love through gifts for their near and dear ones. Our downloads have increased specially during the festive season. Currently, we have 500,000+ installs on Google Play store.

When can we see you on Apple App Store?

Basis the internal research we had conducted, we witnessed that we have a large base of Android users currently, so we decided to put our 100% focus on Android only for now. We have planned an Apple app.

Currently, we have our more focus on Android users which have been reflected in our internal research. By February-March 2022, we plan to launch Zingoy for Apple users as well.

What are you doing to popularize your platform among the masses?

Zingoy is focusing on influencer marketing and its organic reach to popularize the platform among the masses. We are also preparing to reach a young audience, Zingoy Ambassador program, wherein the influencers will get the opportunity to run, learn and earn mentorship programs with paid incentives.

How do you look at the future of cashback industry and what are your plans to leverage this opportunity in future?

Merchant marketing or cashback is not new or of today’s time. It dates back to the 1980s when financial services companies started offering cashback to their credit cardholders. Slowly and gradually, giving cashback became a custom and all the brand across various verticals started offered cashbacks and rewards. The way in which cashback and rewards are being offered by the brands has changed over time. However, when it comes to the future of merchant marketing, it looks promising as more and more people are now interested in it. The pandemic proved to be a boon for digital businesses. Since everyone was at home, it boosted online shopping, which resulted in good traction for all kinds of ecommerce and associated businesses, including cashback websites that got profited. The numbers will be certainly increasing in the coming time, in terms of user base and revenue generation. All these factors will add up to a good scope for cashback platforms.

We have set a futuristic plan to reward every online or offline shopping transaction and are advancing towards it. We have already taken a step in the same direction by launching Zingoy Rupay prepaid card.