Microloans as an anti-crisis solution

Along with a compelled increase in retail prices, adjusted for the depreciation of the ruble, shoe retailers begin cooperation with microfinance organizations. Only at the end of 2014 - the beginning of 2015. such programs are launched in the stores "TsentrObuv", Centro, Alba, Kari and others.

The program has been launched in the CenterObuv Trading House in test mode: the service has been available since the end of January 2015 in several stores in St. Petersburg. In the Alba network - in almost all points (44 out of 47). Since last autumn, installments have been available to customers of half of the Kari stores.

All the retailers mentioned above cooperate with the same partner - Revo Technologies. Unlike the classic microfinance market operator, the organization does not have its own points: the company works only through retail chains.

As a rule, partner networks position the service as free for the client. “There are various options for cooperation, such as full compensation of interest for the client by the distribution network - in this case, the client buys the goods at the declared price, and partial, when part of the money usage fee is charged from the buyer, and part is paid by the retailer,” said the CEO Revo Technologies »Alexander Didukh.

In a little more than two years of its existence, the company managed to conclude cooperation agreements with 14 networks, negotiations are underway with a number of other companies. The launch process usually takes 2-3 months, says Alexander Didukh. Most likely, in a month, I managed to start with Alba.

The practice of introducing microloans is observed mainly in the economy segment, but there is nothing strange in this. “This is due to the focus on consumer income, not the price of the product,” explained Daria Yadernaya, CEO of Y Consulting.

A microloan POS lending tool has the right to exist - especially in times of crisis, when market participants are forced to struggle with reducing the solvency of the population, agrees Andrey Pavlov, president of the Zenden shoe network. Only it can lead not to an increase in sales, but to a decrease in trust and loss of customer loyalty. “In our opinion, the brand should be associated with the buyer with success, improving the level and quality of his life,” the entrepreneur believes. - Some buyers may perceive the offer of microcredit as a hint of their insolvency: they say, the offered goods are too expensive for him. However, life situations are different. "

The Zenden network monitors the development of a partnership between retail and MFIs, but so far they prefer to satisfy the needs of their own customers without the use of microloans.