How Open simplifies business finance for e-commerce startups?

By Team OPEN
April 22, 2021
4 min read

E-commerce startups have gone through a lot of changes in the last decade when it comes to managing business finances.

The e-commerce industry in India has developed drastically over the years. While the internet was introduced in India back in 1995, it also marked the beginning of e-commerce in the country.

The following year, India’s first online B2B directory was launched. So it’s safe to say that the e-commerce sector has pushed companies across India to become more digital-savvy over time.

Evolution is a fundamental principle that drives us to be better, do more, and grow every day. And the same goes for e-commerce startups in India! They have evolved so much.

If you’re running your own e-commerce business, you can grow exponentially too!

Just move to the new way of running finances for your business with Open. And revel in your e-commerce startup’s success!

But before we get to it, let’s ask ourselves a simple question first.

How do e-commerce startups manage money movement today?

The short answer, it’s most likely going to be a messy process. The long answer, perhaps most of the reports, month-end book closures, refund processes, etc., are just cluttering up your office space and it’s difficult to get a clear picture of your business’s cash flow cycle. Does this sound familiar? We say, keep reading to figure it out!

By the way, our Co-founder & CFO, Deena Jacob gets what you’re going through! You can check out her musings on her cash flow blues as a bonus read.

We’ll sum up the facts for you.

An e-commerce business spends close to 60 hours a month on reconciling payments, and over 100 hours on answering payout-related queries! And if there are no means to automate the COD refunds, then the businesses use prolonged business banking processes to send payouts. When you come to think of it, isn’t that a waste of time?

How can Open simplify finances for e-commerce startups?

The e-commerce industry isn’t the only segment that’s grown over time. With it comes cashless modes of payments and payment solutions that have been designed to make digital transactions smooth sailing for customers!

Open has a way of bringing all these payment solutions together.

From collecting online payments through bank transfers, cards, UPI, and more, to integrating payment gateways on e-commerce platforms, you can use just one Open account to track all your money movement. On top of this, sending refunds to merchants and making salary payouts is just as effortless!

Let’s get down to details!

Why does your e-commerce business need simplified payments?

1. Collecting payments is easy

Since e-commerce businesses are a driving force for most companies to generate revenue, integrating a payment gateway into your website or mobile app will make it easier to collect payments. And also save you a lot of time spent on processing payments.

Here’s where Open waltz in to ease up the entire process!

Sign up and complete your KYC to link your business bank accounts with Open — start collecting payments directly into your Open account via bank transfers, UPI, or QR code. That’s not all! You can also seamlessly integrate payment gateway APIs to your Android or iOS SDKs for mobile apps and collect payments easily.

2. Sending out refunds for e-commerce is a cakewalk

Automate the process of sharing refunds with customers faster with Open’s payout links. The customer can receive the refund within a few minutes instead of waiting for as long as 3-7 business days!

And there is no need to spend every minute calculating COD refunds when you can share payout links to send out instant refunds to customers. All you need are the customer’s email ID and contact number to share the refund. And soon as the consumer clicks on the link, they will get redirected to a page wherein they can add their account details or UPI ID and get paid at once.

3. Making payouts to vendors and employees is simple

E-commerce businesses associate with vendors and contractors to procure products and services promptly. So there’s no reason to stick with the old and slow ways of making vendor payments.

Now, pay your e-commerce vendors in time with Payout APIs. While you’re at it, save time on adding beneficiaries, and the additional cooling-off period after adding them.

Most importantly, avoid the hassles of reconciling payments. Auto-save vendor or employee details and auto-generate payments as per the requirement.

4. Integrating Marketplace APIs is uncomplicated

Use Marketplace APIs to collect payments from customers and auto-calculate your e-commerce platform usage charges on every order being placed! Release vendor payments without any manual interruption.

Automate the entire process using Marketplace APIs and revolutionize the way you run your e-commerce business.

5. Setting up an e-commerce store via Open is effortless

If you are an early-stage startup, setting up an e-commerce store can look like a huge task at hand. And especially when you have a fixed budget and financial constraints holding you back! But these challenges can be resolved very quickly.

OpenStore is an in-built application on Open that helps small businesses set up an online store linked with an online bank account. So you can sell online easily, pay vendors and receive customer payments directly from your online store to your business account.

What makes looking after your online store even easier are Open’s virtual cards! You can turn to virtual cards for managing your e-commerce subscriptions, assign them to teams, set an ad spend budget, and track all payments made, in one place.

The pandemic has taken a toll on businesses in the country and changed how the e-commerce startup universe functions as well! But you can still re-emerge as a successful business with Open by your side.

Get Open’s online bank account that will help you run your business and finances from one unified platform. And if this wasn’t convenient already, once you create a seamless e-commerce (checkout) experience for your customers, you will see a boost in your business revenue instantly.

The best part? You can sign up on Open and get your online bank account in minutes. Explore the dashboard before making it your new runway for managing your e-commerce business.