Tiger Global leads $100 million investment in Indian social commerce DealShare

“The startup began as an e-commerce platform on WhatsApp, where it offered hundreds of products to consumers. It didn’t take long before a major consumer spending pattern was visible, Rao said. People were only interested in buying items that were selling at discounted rates, said Rao.
Consumers wanted products that were relevant to them and they wanted to buy these items at a price that instilled the most value for their bucks, said Rao. ‘We focused on locally produced items instead of national brands. Even today, 80% to 90% of items we sell are locally produced,’ he said.”

Avant broadens its digital banking capabilities with challenger acquisition

“Avant is following the lead of other alternative lenders that have tied up with banks to increase profitability or expand into new credit products.
LendingClub’s recent acquisition significantly reduced its cost of funds. By buying Radius Bank, the alt lender reduced its borrowing costs by 90% from the previous year.
SoFi’s forthcoming transaction allows it to offer new lending products. The online lender’s recent purchase of Golden Pacific Bancorp is already enabling it to expand its credit solutions into new areas: SoFi launched its first-ever credit card alongside the acquisition and subsequently added auto refinancing to its growing lineup.”

“‘Where [AI] can be leveraged in the future is by further automating analysis, automating responses and reducing staff’s eye-on-screen time,’ he said. ‘However, with any automation, you must balance that with having trained professionals to guide the tools. While AI and ML [machine learning] are great for replacing pools of personnel performing rote tasks, they will never replace instinct and experience. You still need someone to tailor the tools to your environment and company, and course-correct when needed.’”

“While year-over-year consumer spending in the U.S. dipped last month, the pandemic has supercharged ecommerce. According to data from IBM’s U.S. Retail Index, business closures and shelter-in-place orders accelerated the shift to digital shopping by five years, with online shopping projected to grow nearly 20% in 2020.
Based on the survey data from BMC and Mercatus, ecommerce grocery orders alone totaled $5.9 billion, up 3.6% from $5.7 billion in August.
As of Q1 2019, just 2.72% of ecommerce website visits converted into purchases, according to Statista.
Klevu customer Puma says it saw an over 50% increase in search-led conversions on one of its websites after adopting the platform.”

“‘A lot of organizations embrace AI and start to work on it,’ he said. ‘But they have been in continuous experimentation mode, so nothing has really gone into production to drive through business value in terms of new revenue growth, efficiencies or better recommendations. So there’s a lot of money going into it, but no return coming up.’
‘Not just in banking, but in all industries there is going to be some amount of disruption in terms of customer expectation management, financial institutions included,’ Kagoo said. ‘If they do not continue to innovate and drive more hyperpersonalized services and meet their customer where they want to be met, they will lose out right in terms of market share, because the consumer is continuing to get used to, or be introduce to, these kinds of digital models and personalized service.’”