Reliance Securities leverages big data and robo-analytics to facilitate effortless trading
Reliance Securities offers online trading platforms and investment opportunities, providing customers with access to equities, derivatives, currency, IPOs, mutual funds, bonds and corporate FDs. In the last 6 months, the company has focused on improving customer experience right from the sign-up stage to transactions as well as after sales service. It has transformed its broking platform to a financial wellness platform which provides savings, investment and protection.
According to Rajeev Srivastava, Chief Business Officer, the company has re-engineered its customer on-boarding, making it a completely contactless, paperless process enabling customers to be able to trade in as less as 15 minutes. “We have also integrated our equities and commodities trading platforms to give a seamless experience to our customers. We have added insurance as a new product category on our web platforms, which is in addition to all investment products that we offer. This is in line with our objective of making our platform a financial wellness platform,” says he.
The company has launched a customer loyalty program – R Advantage – recently, a first of its kind in the broking industry, which gives reward points if a customer exhibits the right investment behavior.
MULTIPLE TECHNOLOGIES
The company has used multiple technologies like .Net, SQL, jQue, etc and has created TICK platform. “This is a comprehensive analytical solution that has been built to address the limitations of users and brokers for finding relevant insights from the financial markets in real-time,” explains Srivastava, further stating: “This platform consists of a bouquet of products covering news, price and fundamental data for various asset classes and detailed analytics at portfolio, brokerage and user framework level. It has TICK web which is a big data analytics and robo-insights platform and TICK Pro, our intuitive mobile app, which empowers one with incredible analysis and pre-set strategies to get trade ideas effortlessly.”
The company has an in-house IT team of over 40 people.
DEVELOPMENT TIME
Srivastava says the team could could re-engineer the customer onboarding experience in less than 3 months while equities commodities integration has taken nearly 6 months. The agility to deliver products is also dependent on the applicable regulatory framework, says he.
NON-METRO YOUNG CUSTOMERS
Through digital contactless and paperless onboarding, the company expects to add millennial customers and customers from non-metro cities. Srivastava says nearly 50% of the new customers acquired through digital routes in last 3 months are aged 30 years or below and the company has seen higher interest from cities such as Bhopal, Visakhapatnam, Agra and Dehradun. Integration of equities and commodities platforms will be more useful for derivative traders while customer loyalty program will be relevant for all kind of customers, he adds.
MARKETING, PROMOTIONS
Reliance Securities believes that customers still depend a lot on the reference of their peer groups while selecting a financial product. “We have accordingly launched a ‘Refer n Earn Program’ for existing customers who act as our brand ambassadors and introduce us to new clients in their influence circle,” says Srivastava, adding: “Apart from this, we extensively use digital marketing efforts, brand partnerships for acquisition and systematic digital engagement measures through video content and likewise to engage and educate user groups.”
CHANGES IN T & C
Recent guidelines by SEBI ensure that a customer can open his account in a completely contactless and paperless manner. In this regard, Srivastava says the most important change is right at the account opening stage. The original seen and verified requirement would be met through e-sign, while in-person verification (IPV) requirement is taken through Aadhaar authentication and bank details are verified through penny drop mechanism.
DRIVERS OF CHANGES
With increased adoption of smart phones and ever improving internet quality, customers expect a frictionless digital experience in all product categories and investment products are just a part of that. Srivastava says easier customer sign-up process and more and more digital innovations in the investment products and platforms have led to increased participation of retail clients in the capital market. New customer acquisition rates have more than doubled in recent years from 1.8 million demat accounts annually in 2015 to 4.1 million in 2019. This trend has further catalysed in the post-corona period.
“We have also witnessed nearly 50% jump in our digital accounts in pre- and post-corona period,” says he
