Freecharge launches Escrow services

India's fastest growing digital payments platform Freecharge has unveiled a buyer protection service by launching escrow facility for merchants and customers.

The escrow service mitigates risk of unsuccessful shopping experiences and safeguards customers' money by withholding funds till they receive the right product.

The first merchant for this service, Shopo, has integrated Freecharge wallet on its app to offer escrow protection to its buyers and sellers. After buyers place orders by paying through Freecharge, the seller is notified that the buyer has completed the payment, and money is on hold in escrow.

Once the order is delivered to the buyer, the money is automatically released to the seller. In case the order is not shipped or delivered within the stipulated time, the money is refunded to the buyer's wallet.

"Setting-up an escrow service is a fast, secure and efficient way to safeguard customers' money and mitigate the risk of critical transactions and failed shopping experience. We have seen globally such services have proven to dramatically expand the ecosystem for both digital payments and e-commerce market place," said CEO Freecharge, Govind Rajan.

"Shopo wanted to create a digital payments ecosystem for its merchants and create an environment of trust between buyers and sellers. With Freecharge, Shopo will not only enable digital payments, but create a secure escrow gateway which will also safeguard customer's money and ensure a seamless shopping experience. In the coming months, we plan to expand this offering to a widespread merchant network and further influence customers shopping habits to move from cash to digital payments," added Govind Rajan.

"We are committed to deliver a seamless and convenient shopping experience to both sellers and customers on our platform. Shopo is India's biggest open C2C marketplace with 2, 00,000 sellers," said Senior Vice President Shopo, Sandeep Komaravelly.

"Enabling Buyer protection through Escrow services enabled by Freecharge, will immensely help in building the trust and convenience between the Buyers and sellers. We are also making it very convenient for sellers to accept online payments through this integration," added Sandeep Komaravelly.

The Freecharge-Shopo partnership is another step to deepen integration across platforms in the Snapdeal ecosystem. With this integration, Freecharge will make inroads to the large customer and merchant base of Shopo.

At the same time, Shopo will also get instant access to expand its reach to millions of wallet users who enjoy the convenience and ease of digital payments.