Accelyst Solutions Pvt. Ltd. has taken a new initiative through its website, freecharge.in, by giving free retail coupons worth equal to the amount of the recharge made through the website by mobile users having pre-paid connections.
“Freecharge, which is an e-commerce service provider, will give free coupons of top Indian retailers along with every mobile prepaid recharge done on the site. It combines the idea of cash-back with prepaid recharge, which touches about 50-crore mobile subscribers directly,” said the website's founder Kunal Shah.
Pointing out that the company wanted to cash in on the spurt in growth of the number of mobile and e-commerce subscribers in India, Mr. Shah said they were offering recharge virtually free by offering equal amount in retail coupons, which could be used for shopping or at restaurants.
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Claiming that there was no service in India that offered any form of coupons or cash-back for mobile recharges, Mr. Shah said freecharge.in had already acquired a ‘patent pending' status on this business model. The company planned to capture 50 per cent of the total online recharge business by 2011, he added.
Explaining how the system works, Mr. Shah said if a user recharged his prepaid connection for Rs.100 by paying for it online through their website, he would also receive discount coupons worth Rs.100 that could be used at any of the listed retailers.
“We have already signed long-term partnerships with leading food chains like McDonald's, Barista, Baskin Robbins and also with multiplexes like PVR. We will soon be joining hands with apparels chains, renowned national brands of restaurants and grocery stores to give more options to our users,” he added.
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Mr. Shah further said that the website was launched in August this year and was already doing around 2,500 transactions everyday, with over 20 per cent new visitors registering on every single day.