Online leasing is here to stay. COVID pandemic and changes in customer preferences

Online services on the rise  

The value of online services has been growing for years. It is estimated that by 2025, one in every five zlotys will be spent on products bought via e-commerce. Over 70% of customers shop online. An identical proportion of responders claim that they are drawn to online stores by their accessibility, lack of opening hours and unlimited time for completing the purchase.  

More than half of users have noticed a considerable number of benefits that are combined with online shopping.  They are particularly fond of low costs of delivery, lower prices compared to traditional shops and discounts for online buyers. What is more, the percentage of people purchasing products for their companies is also on the rise. Over 30% of respondents claim to have bought computers or cars online in the last 12 months.  

Online leasing: a distant future or a part of present? 

In the field of LeaseTech product development, after numerous meetings with customers, we have noticed that electronic transaction processing has emerged in almost every conversation. It is the very solution that can provide customers with an entirely remote service process without the need to meet with advisors face to face. Thus, it can clearly be seen that the trends for corporate customers is similar to the one visible in the behavior of individual customers – they both switched to online services.  

Until now, the reluctance to invest in remote sales processes in leasing industry could be caused by a large representation of customer behaviors commonly known as ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline). It was a tendency to browse the products in online sources while refusing to complete the transaction in digital channels. This trend was visible I.e. in automotive industry. On the one hand, this preference was caused by a lack of tools in leasing companies, and on the other – customers’ concerns regarding such transactions.  

The aversion to online solutions in leasing industry is intensified by the tardiness of the lawmakers that still insist on the archaic need to sign all the agreements and contracts in person. Luckily, we can see some changes even in those areas, as newer and newer tools for digital signatures take the market by the storm. In short, as difficult as 2020 was, it was definitely a year that encourage both the customers and the leasing companies to act. They can finally perceive the digital channel as secure and relevant. This, as one can easily conclude, caused a sudden and rapid search for digital tools that can support this type of sales in leasing companies.  

Online leasing made to measure  

Luckily for us, we have been working on such tools since the beginning of 2019. This helped us prepare for such a sudden demand. The task is quite complicated, especially because the three-way relation between customer, shop and leasing company requires a number of specific steps and actions that are not a part of any other form of financing. Thus, the role of each of the stakeholders has to be planned and reflected during the creation of processes in their target systems.  

The regulations and limitations are an additional challenge in the creation of such a process. The obligatory signature is only one of them. To fulfill this goal, we pay a lot of attention to methods of verification and authentication of customers personal details, implementation of digital signatures and combining banking systems (online banking) with sales processes for leasing companies. 2020 and the needs of our customers allowed us to comprehensively develop and finally prepare a sufficient portal. It not only meets all those requirements, but also it was critically acclaimed in the field of UX 

2021 – a challenge for online leasing  

It may seem that the new year 2021 poses a number of challenges for the leasing industry. This transformation will allow leasing to switch to a new sales channel – possibly the most important channel in the history. Although it is hard to have some positive associations with 2020, it will sure play an important part in digitization of sales processes in leasing companies.  

Resources:

1. Report E-commerce in Poland 2020, Gemius for e-Commerce Poland.
2. Report E-commerce and FinTech. The System of Connected Vessels, 300Research & Impact.

Ailleron

Ailleron Marketing team includes digital marketers and content creators who provide insights and expertise from across the organization, including #AilleronExperts. For media queries, please get in touch with us via our contact form.