Bengaluru-based online foreign exchange service provider BuyForexOnline, identifying B2B market as a growth driver, is channeling its efforts on B2B space alongside its core B2C business. The company had launched its B2B platform in December 2016 in five locations – NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. In an exclusive interaction with Express TravelWorld, Ananth Reddy, founder and managing director, BuyForexOnline, said, “Currently a large part of our business consists of B2C, but we wanted go to the source of foreign travel – the travel agent. Travel agents find it complex to co-ordinate forex, which includes various things such as finding the best rates, arranging documents, payments, delivery and customer support. Hence we have outcourced this in a simple structure known as ‘Total Agent Module’, an online tool where you can trigger the lead of your client, then we take care of everything.”
At present the B2C market consists of 80 per cent of the company’s overall business, but it is planning to push the B2B platform nationwide, alongside prepaid forex card. “We promote prepaid foreign exchange card which is linked to the travel agent and valid for five years, so anytime the customer transacts with us, the agent gets his commission. Travel agents had showed slight reluctance initially, but we have assure them that we are not here to steal their businesses; we are here to ensure that forex becomes a proper revenue stream for travel agents, instead of a one-time transaction.”
BuyForexOnline’s B2B platform received around 4,000 agents, and is targeting 40,000 agents. To drive this growth, the company plans to foray into 30 locations pan-India including Tier II and Tier III locations in about six months.
“We need to have our feet street to acquire more travel agents. We understand that a travel agent has multiple revenue streams, but we won’t enter into any of these; we are only focused on forex. Forex has traditionally been an offline activity; the online forex market has been visible only since 2014. Demonetisation has been very positive for us as an online forex service provider. The trend of forex cards is increasing in the country, which offers simplicity, convenience and security,” added Reddy.
For the two next years, BuyForexOnline will focus on bringing more agents its platform, and expanding its sales team.
