The Indian unit of global beverages company Coca-Cola and its bottling partner Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages have partnered with the State Bank of India to enable over 2.6 million retailers and 5000 distributors of the company in conducting business transactions digitally. T. Krishnakumar, CEO, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages said the company’s distributors remit their dues on an electronic basis only so all that is already digitized. The understanding with SBI is to ensure that the consumer to retailer transactions become digital so that the payment from the retailer to the distributor can also be digital, he added. SBI will educate retailers on digital transactions and even a customized payment solution for retailers and distributors selling Coca-Cola products will be developed. Retailers and merchants will also be able to access loans and other financial services from the bank. Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of the bank, said the fact that they deal in cash ensures that they do not become included in the banking system so they turn to informal system that lends at high rates of interest.
