ETW Staff – Mumbai
State Bank of India (SBI) and MakeMyTrip.com have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, identifying areas of cooperation to expand the market for online travel services in India. This strategic association will enable both partners to capitalise on the opportunity presented by India’s burgeoning internet economy that is driven by a boost in adoption of e-commerce and m-commerce. The two partners seek to unlock the array of business opportunities available in this segment across various spheres, by becoming integral to all the segments of the consumers’ lifecycle. SBI is aiming towards driving synergies between banking and various other aspects of a customer’s lifecycle including the travel segment and positioning itself as the ‘go-to’ bank for all of customers’ needs. MakeMyTrip.com is focused on expanding the travel market opportunity by driving the offline-to-online adoption in the hotels and packages business, and meeting the travel aspirations of Indian customers.
The levers of this alliance include: partnership with personal banking unit for consumer facing propositions – including EMIs on purchase of holidays and international travel, customised travel products like forex cards and travel products that inspire SBI customers to travel. Secondly, partnership with SME and acquiring business of MMT suppliers, such as two-three star hotels, franchisees, trade and travel partners will get access to SBI products, loans, bank guarantees, PoS payment instruments at preferential rates. Partnership with Cards for promoting card usage will help in pushing the agenda of a ‘less cash economy’.
Speaking on the association, Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, SBI highlighted, “Travel forms an integral part of a customer’s lifecycle and comprises almost 65 per cent of the total e-commerce market today. Our alliance with MakeMyTrip.com will work towards providing value to each of the stakeholders along the entire value chain of the travel and tourism business.” Deep Kalra, chairman and group CEO, MakeMyTrip.com, elaborated, “The overall macro sentiments are positive and we believe this is the right time to identify and execute opportunities to unlock the market potential. The key lever of future growth will be offline-to-online, or rather, offline-to-mobile shift. This alliance will help catalyse this shift.”