CRED | Not everyone gets it
Picture this : you're waiting in line to enter a new club in the city that you got an exclusive invite to from a close friend you've known for years. You trust this friend with pretty much everything.
The line's moving pretty fast, people are either making it in or waiting to be let in.
The bouncers are dressed in black t-shirts with bold letters "CRIF" & "EXPERIAN"
You're wondering what it is, while they call you to step ahead & share your phone number to ID you.
Five seconds later : they say congratulations, you've made it. Your credit score is a solid 750+.
Welcome to the most rewarding payment experience there is.
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Still wondering what it is?
CRED is a fintech company that was officially launched by Kunal Shah, former founder of freecharge, in the year 2018.
The initial product was built to provide users a platform to manage and pay off credit card bills and get rewarded for timely payments - AKA good financial behaviour
The marketed themselves to be a members-only app curated for the trustworthy & credit-worthy individuals of the country to make financial progress and get rewarded for good financial behaviour.
How does CRED define trustworthy & credit-worthy?
a credit score is a statistical representation of one’s creditworthiness.
CRIF, EXPERIAN, EQUIFAX are used to ensure you've practiced good financial behaviour in the past.
An individuals credit score ranges between 300-900, with 300 being the least & 900 being the most. While you can't achieve the 900 score anymore, 850 is the maximum you can get (it's like trying to get 100/100 in a language subject, they'll never give it to you)
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A good credit score ranges between 670-739 & anything above that is really good.
Hence, only individuals with a really good credit score AKA 750+ get access to the club.
Today CRED has a suite of products - almost like a super app for all your payment needs & a little more:
- CRED money
- CRED mint
- CRED Garage
- CRED escapes
- CRED store
- CRED pay
- Scan & pay
- Tap & pay
- Pay anyone
- RuPay cards on UPI
Understand your Product
(Before you begin, you need to know what your product is, what are its features, what is the problem being solved by your product?)
CRED PAY
A collective of UPI payments & credit card payments across your friends, family, online orders & a lot more
Problems & solutions
- Seamless merchant integration : most apps face friction while integrating with payment methods. CRED pay does that very smoothly for large merchants online & offline with extensive tech but also for d2c brands onboarded via shopify, gokwik, shopflo etc.
- CRED pay offers rewards & incentives to the exclusive club members
- Unified payment experience with all UPI, credit card & CC on UPI transactions being done from one place.
Let’s talk UPI
💡 Did you know that your UPI ID can be customised to your needs/ even make it funny For example : ”paymebro@hdfcbank” or "kingofcash@oksbi”
According to NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) there’s been a run rate of 14.4Mn transactions in the month of July’24. The transaction volume increased by a whopping 44.87% from July 2023 (9,964.61 million) to July 2024 (14,435.55 million)
From when they started in 2016 having 0.09M to just a Lakh in transactions M-O-M to 14.4Mn transactions M-O-M in 2024

Given the rapid digital adoption and innovation in payment systems, the growth could be substantial
Market leaders

- The major players in the UPI market today with txn volumes are :
- Phonepe - 6983.97 Mn txns
- Google pay - 5341.23 Mn txns
- PayTm - 1128.97 Mn txns
- CRED - 142.56 Mn txns
CRED holds a 1% market share - think it’s relevant with top 1% branding? Not really, I hope not.
- If we go deeper and split this into P2P (Peer to peer) transactions & P2M (peer to merchant) transactions source : NPCI

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P2M transactions are 1.7x higher which is almost the double of P2P transactions which suggests that a large portion of UPI usage is dedicated to retail and commercial payments. This reflects
- Digital Adoption in Commerce: The widespread use of UPI for everyday purchases, from small shops to large retailers, means many consumers are comfortable using digital payments for transactions of all sizes.
- Shift Toward Cashless Transactions: The higher P2M ratio could indicate more reliance on UPI for daily expenditures, even for low-value transactions.
- Merchant Integration: With many small and large merchants now accepting UPI, consumers have more opportunities to use it, boosting P2M transactions.
TAM calculations
- Unique UPI users - According to the data above and latest NPCI data shared today, the number of unique UPI users that registered and made atleast 1 UPI transaction are - 350 Million
- All credit card users - Latest RBI data available states that there's about 40-50 Million credit card users in India todat.
- Number of credit cards in circulation - 101.8 Million , this indicates that most users have an avg of 2-3 cards atleast.
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Total Addressable Market (TAM) calculations
Only credit card users – 40 Million CC users
- Definition: TAM represents the total potential market size. In this case, it refers to the total number of credit card users in India who could potentially be targeted.
- Assumption: we have identified that there are approximately 40-50 million credit card users in India. For the sake of this calculation, let's assume, a rounded figure of 40 million users as the TAM. This accounts for all credit card users, regardless of whether they hold one or multiple cards.
Unique UPI users – 350 Million UPI users
- Definition : TAM here represents the total number of unique UPI users as per NPCI's latest data
- Assumption : we have identified that there are approximately 350 million unique UPI users in India.
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Identifying the overlap between CC users & UPI users
- Many credit card users are also UPI users. However, not all UPI users have credit cards.
- Initially, CRED targeted only those with a credit score of 750+ and a credit card. After launching UPI, they broadened this to include UPI users with a credit score of 750+, even if they didn’t have a credit card.

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- Credit Card Users with 750+ Credit Score: Typically, around 20-25% of credit card users might have a credit score above 750. For simplicity, let’s assume 25%. This gives us:
- 25% of 40 million = 10 million credit card users with a 750+ credit score.
- UPI Users with 750+ Credit Score: The percentage of UPI users with a 750+ credit score is likely lower since UPI users are more diverse in terms of financial profiles. Let’s assume around 10-15% have a 750+ score. For this calculation, we’ll use 10%:
- 10% of 350 million = 35 million UPI users with a 750+ credit score.
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Overlap Between Credit Card and UPI Users: A significant number of high credit score credit card users are also likely to be UPI users. Let’s assume a conservative overlap where 50% of high credit score credit card users are also counted among the UPI users with a high credit score. This would reduce the potential for double-counting:
- Overlap = 50% of 10 million = 5 million users.
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Final TAM Estimate
- Non-overlapping Credit Card Users with 750+ Credit Score: 10 million - 5 million (already counted in UPI) = 5 million unique credit card users.
- Non-overlapping UPI Users with 750+ Credit Score: 35 million - 5 million (already counted in credit card users) = 30 million unique UPI users.
Combining the non-overlapping portions:
- 5 million (credit card users) + 30 million (UPI users) = 35 million unique users.
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Concluding with 35 million unique users being our TAM​
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2. Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) –
- Definition: SAM represents the segment of the TAM that your service can realistically target based on factors like market accessibility, product fit, and user behavior.
SAM for CRED would be narrowed down to users that with CRED's core value prop & serviceability
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Reasoning
- Engagement Level: CRED has demonstrated the ability to engage a significant portion of the market with its current 17 million gated-in users. Given this, it's reasonable to assume that a larger share of the TAM is serviceable.
- CRED’s Market Penetration: CRED's platform appeals to a digitally savvy, financially engaged demographic. This group is likely a substantial portion of the TAM, especially given the trends in digital adoption in India.
This should be about 60-70% of the TAM today
70% of 35 million TAM: 24.5 million users.
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Concluding with 24.5 million unique users being our SAM​
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Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) –
- Given that our SAM is at 24.5Mn user base. CRED's current gated in user base being 17Million
& the current penetration it's reasonable to assume CRED could capture 90% of the total SAM today.
90% of 24.5Million SAM = 22.05 Million users
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Concluding with 22.05 million users being our SOM
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Final assumptions
TAM - 35 MILLION USERS
SAM - 24.5 MILLION USERS
SOM - 22.05 MILLION USERS
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In-Depth Competitor Analysis
FACTORS
​ | PHONPE | GOOGLE PAY | PAYTM | CRED |
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What is the core problem being solved by them? | Simplifies digital transactions, bill payments, and financial management for users. | Facilitates easy and secure transactions and bill payments, leveraging Google’s existing infrastructure and security. | Addresses the need for a versatile digital wallet and payments platform with a strong offline merchant presence. | Targetting high-credit-score users with premium rewards and financial management tools. |
What are the products/features/services being offered? | UPI payments, bill payments, recharges, insurance, investments, gold trading, and merchant services. | UPI payments, bill payments, peer-to-peer transfers, and cashback offers. | UPI payments, bill payments, recharges, digital wallet, Paytm Payments Bank, insurance, investments, and financial services. | UPI payments, bill payments, peer-to-peer transfers, insurance, investments, rewards, rent payment, |
Who are the users? | Broad user base including both urban and rural populations, with a strong presence in merchant transactions (P2M%) | Primarily Android users looking for a secure and convenient payment solution, tech-savvy individuals, and digital natives. | Includes a wide demographic, from urban to rural users, with a focus on merchants and offline payments. | High-credit-score individuals, typically affluent and financially savvy users in urban areas. |
GTM Strategy | paytm launched their GTM campaign during the 2nd covid lockdown when cashless transactions began to spike.
They saw a spike in adoption of tier 4,5,6 city users as well. Post which they launched the "har phone pe phonepe" marketing campaign which catering to all audiences across india which pays an ode to both the Indian spirit of resilience and celebrates the PhonePe users and the digital enhanced lives that we are living.
| google pay launched their UPI app named "tez" right after demonetization in india which was later named to google pay.
Google pay focused on fast secure and rewarding payments when they launched initially. Catering to low network payments as well rewarding users with cashbacks via scratch cards was how they acquired their initial chunk of users. With their UI being simple and efficient, users have retained on the platform now even without cashbacks. | Paytm started off as a mobile & bill payments app back in 2010 when digitisation and smart phones were emerging. In 2014, paytm launched it's wallet model which was pivotal to transition into the payments industry. This also helped them acquire many merchants in their ecosystem.
In 2017, they aggressively wanted the tier 2,3 audiences when they launched the app in local languages as well to make it accessible for all types of users across india & made payments rewarding.
They used celebrities & newspaper ads to promote their cashback narrative | CRED was designed to be an exclusive members only app for the top 1% of the country's credit card users with a score of 750 and above only.
But once CRED UPI was launched, one of the rules that was users only with a credit card could join the app was removed & the tenet was users should still have a credit score of 750+ which could come from your existing financial behaviours. Trying to keep all affluent users in one platform for their financial needs.
They scaled in 2021 when they partnered with IPL which created immense brand recall & referral programmes scaled to promote UPI and credit card bill payments mainly. |
What channels do they use? | TV digital ads, strong focus on QR presence in offline stores, social media ads | TV ads, referral programms for p2p payments specifically, celebrity endorsements | bollywood celebrity endorsements, newspaper ads, offline QR campaigns. | referrals, celebrity advertisements, digital ads during IPL, social media, youtube |
How have they raised funding? | PhonePe was founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer. - Flipkart acquired PhonePe in 2016, and it became a key player in the digital payments ecosystem in India.
- In 2020, PhonePe became a separate entity from Flipkart, and in 2021, it raised $700 million in a round led by Walmart, valuing the company at $5.5 billion. PhonePe continued to raise funds, including a $350 million round in early 2023 at a $12 billion valuation, and later an additional $100 million in 2024.
strategy : PhonePe focused on acquiring users through cashback offers, extensive merchant partnerships, and seamless UPI integration. Its strategy involved deep penetration into tier 2 and 3 cities and expanding into financial services, including insurance and mutual funds.
​ | Paytm was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010 as a mobile recharge platform.
- Paytm raised its first major round of funding from SAIF Partners in 2011. The company gained significant traction after launching its mobile wallet in 2014, just before India’s 2016 demonetization.
- Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Financial became significant investors, leading several funding rounds. Paytm raised $2.5 billion in its IPO in 2021, which was one of India’s largest IPOs at that time. By 2024, while the company had not raised much post-IPO, it continued to focus on profitability and expanding its financial services
strategy : Paytm’s growth was fueled by its ability to quickly scale its services during the demonetization period, massive cashback offers, and its expansion into various financial products, including Paytm Payments Bank and Paytm Money. ​ | Google Pay, originally launched as Tez in India in 2017, was Google's entry into the Indian payments market. It was rebranded as Google Pay in 2018 and quickly became a popular UPI-based payments app. - As part of Alphabet Inc., Google Pay does not raise funds independently. Instead, it leverages Google's vast resources and technological expertise to scale.
strategy : Google Pay focused on a clean and simple user interface, strong security features, and extensive partnerships with banks and merchants. The app quickly gained popularity due to its easy-to-use features, cashbacks, and rewards programs. ​ | CRED was founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah, the former founder of FreeCharge.
- CRED raised $30 million in its Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India, and this was followed by multiple rounds of funding as the company grew.
- CRED became one of the fastest Indian startups to reach unicorn status, with a valuation of over $2.2 billion by 2021. By 2024, CRED’s valuation had crossed $6.4 billion after several funding rounds, including one in 2023 that raised $140 million
strategy : CRED’s strategy was unique, targeting a niche but affluent market with high credit scores. It expanded its offerings beyond credit card payments to include loans, rent payments, and e-commerce, all while maintaining its premium brand positioning. |
Brand Positioning | Reliable, everyday payments partner
Target audience : mass market, broad audience all users across tier 1,2,3 cities without language barrier | Trusted, payment solution
Target audience: Urban users in tier 1, 2, people who prefer simple UI, secure payment experiences ​ | Financial services super-app!
Target audience: broad market, urban, semi urban users, small businesses etc. basically a super app for all your financial needs in one place.
| 1% club for the elite, rewarding good financial behaviour
Target audience : top 1% credit card users with credit score above 750 & making it the super app for all financial needs. |
UX Evaluation | strengths : simple UI with bold icons and straightforward language, detailing all the features. All of these are present on the first screen itself & users don't have to search too much to understand where what features exist today. it also offers personalisation with payments made to frequent users being on top, streamlining repetitive tasks.
Users that prefer phonepe mentioned that it's very easy to find their UPI ID's and majority of the things on the app. They haven't changed their UI so users have been accustomed and conditioned to where which feature exists.
Improvements : Visual design & loading times during peak usage by multiple users. | strengths : clean & minimalistic UI design. Clear fonts & simple icons make it visually appealing and easy to use. Main focus is for users to make seamless transactions.
Majority of the features available are on the first screen like sending money or paying bills reducing cognitive overload
Improvements: customizations are available today to prioritise frequent payments on top lacks multiple features and limited to only transactions. | strengths : With Paytm's UX, their strength is being packed with multiple features across financial services from payment loans to investments. They have a vast range of features for personal users and small businesses too, users can customize their homescreen for prioritisation of features they use often
Improvements: since paytm offers a vast range of services their interface is too cluttered and you have to go through a lot to find basic functionality features.
User calling proved that users find the app immensly cluttered with a bunch of information. | strengths: CRED's UI visually is very appealing and sleek. Using high quality images, animations appeals to the affluent target audience. CRED's UX is meant to be very intuitive for the user with smooth navigation across the app
improvements : user calling proved that some users use the app for certain key features only & find it difficult sometimes to navigate across the app to search for example their UPI ID whereas they'd find this on their first screen in a phonepe / gpay |
What is your product’s Right to Win? | PhonePe’s right to win is its dominant position in the UPI market and its broad reach across India, redefining language barriers in tech | Paytm’s strength lies in its comprehensive financial ecosystem and early establishment in the market. | Google Pay leverages its integration with the broader Google ecosystem and its strong reputation for security and innovation. | CRED's right to win is to focus on a premium, affluent user base and offering exclusive rewards that create a unique value proposition. ​ |
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Overall summary and takeaways:
Learning from PhonePe and Google Pay: Both platforms have thrived by prioritizing simplicity and user-friendliness in their design. A key takeaway is that no matter how feature-rich a platform is, ensuring a seamless and intuitive user experience is crucial. The easier it is for users to navigate and complete transactions, the more likely they are to stay engaged.
Learning from Paytm: Paytm’s extensive merchant network and acceptance across both online and offline environments have been pivotal to its success. A key lesson here is that widespread merchant acceptance drives consumer adoption, as users prefer platforms they can use universally.
With CRED's niche audience, a lot of what phonepe, paytm or google pay does is not replicable at CRED apart from basic changes that are required since these competitors have the largest wallet share in the country.
Adopting some of their strategies while staying true to CRED's core value prop should help us scale.
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ICPs - Ideal customer profile
Basis user calling exercise + one HNWI assumption : Let’s evaluate some potential ICPs & give them some personality to feel like they’re real humans 👽
| High-Value Credit Card Users | Frequent Reward Seekers | Financially Savvy Millennials | Premium Lifestyle Enthusiasts (HNWIs) |
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Names | Shashank | Rishank | Sachin | Rahul |
City | Tier 1 | Tier 2/ Moved to tier 1 | Tier 2/ Moved to tier 1 | Tier 1 |
Age | 24-30 | 30-50 | 25-35 | 35-40 |
number of credit cards | 1-2 | 2-4 | 2 | 1-2 |
Income/ yearly | 15-25L | 7-15L | 10-20L | 20L+ |
Living situation | living with small - medium sized families | Living with flatmates / partner | living with small - medium sized families | living alone / with medium sized families |
Take a look at their relationship with money 🤑
| High-Value Credit Card Users | Frequent Reward Seekers | Financially Savvy Millennials | Premium Lifestyle Enthusiasts (HNWIs) |
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Names | Shashank | Rishank | Sachin | Rahul |
Income | 15-25L | 7-15L | 10-20L | 20L+ |
goals | optimising rewards & utilising CC benefits, thought out investment plans | strategic about purchases, optimising & maximising rewards/ referrals | strategic spending, saving for big buys, investing for the future | premium experience, cares about lifestyle & status. Have high ROI investments across assets etc |
Personal spends | They can afford to spend quite a bit on themselves m-o-m without worrying too much. | will try to buy value added products during sales or when there are good deals/ rewards. | Informed buyers only when need arises or budgeted purchases. | Will buy as & when they see fit that improves their lifestyle, social status, rarity. |
Family / living expenses | Kids education expense Groceries / food ordersGym membership - for self & spouseOTT subscriptions Fuel m-o-m travel | Groceries / food orderstransport Social outings OTT subscriptions cult membershipQuarterly/ bi-yearly travel | Kids education expense GroceriesGym membership - for self & spouse & kids activitiesOTT subscriptions Fuel | Luxury purchasesLuxury dining experienceseducation expenses premium gym membership/ club membership OTT frequent travel |
Rent | no | yes | yes | no |
cc limits | 2L | 1L | 1-2L | 5L |
Take a look at their relationship with CRED
| High-Value Credit Card Users | Frequent Reward Seekers | Financially Savvy Millennials | Premium Lifestyle Enthusiasts (HNWIs) |
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Names | Shashank | Rishank | Sachin | Rahul |
Adoption | Early adopters since CRED solved for pain point of managing multiple credit cardsuses 2+ products on CRED | came in via referral loop to optimise rewards & returnsuses 2+ products on CRED | came in via a referral, friends/ colleagues told them about benefitsuses 2-3 core features only | early adopter, uses it for exclusivity, premium UI/UXmainly for 1 core feature |
Frequency | 3-5 times a week | 5+ times a week | 3-5 times a week | once a month only for CCBP/ bills due |
appetite to pay | high | medium | medium-high | high |
reward sensitivity | medium | high | medium | low |
stickiness | likes the product & sticks to it, wants to make it one app for all things payments | might switch to a different app if there are better deals | sticks to app for core features since they installed it first | high as long as exclusivity remains |
Keeping the 5 core principles to choose our ICPs
Params | High-Value Credit Card Users | Frequent Reward Seekers | Financially Savvy Millennials | Premium Lifestyle Enthusiasts (HNWIs) |
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| Shashank | Rishank | Sachin | Rahul |
Adoption curve | low - medium | low | low - medium | low |
Frequency of use case | high | high | medium | high |
Appetite to pay / spend | high | medium | medium | high |
Sizeable TAM | 4.5Mn | 8.1Mn | 10.5Mn | 2.87Mn |
Distribution potential | high | high | medium | niche |
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Sizeable TAM calculations
With 30 million credit card users with a credit score above 750 in India. Let’s split them by the above 4 categories to measure the sizeable TAM
- High-Value Credit Card Users
- Percentage: 15% of credit card holders.
- Calculation: High-Value Credit Card Users = 30 million x 15% ( credit cards user x assumed % age of high value credit card users)
Number: Approximately 4.5 million high-value credit card users in India.
- Frequent Reward Seekers
- Percentage: 25-30% of credit card holders.
- Calculation:
Number: Approximately 8.1 million frequent reward seekers in India. - frequent reward seekers = 30 million x 27%
- Financially Savvy Millennials
- Percentage: 35-40% of millennials interested in digital financial tool
- Calculation:
Number: Approximately 10.5 million financially savvy millennials in India. - financial savvy millenials = 30 million x 35%
4. Premium Lifestyle Enthusiasts
- Number of HNWIs in India: 3.589 million (35.89 lakh).
- Number of Credit Card Holders in India: 40 to 50 million.
- Percentage of HNWIs using Credit Cards: Generally, it is reasonable to assume that a high proportion of HNWIs use credit cards. Let's estimate that around 80-90% of HNWIs use credit cards.
Calculations
- Calculate the Number of HNWIs using Credit Cards:
Number of HNWIs using Credit Cards = 2.8712million - Number of HNWIs using Credit Cards= 3.589 million × 80%
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We’ll be picking Shashank & Sachin as our ICPs - who fall under High value credit card users & financial savvy millennials & since they use their credit cards, they’re also most likely (90% probability) to have adopted to using UPI as well.
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Marketing pitch
Feel the odds fall in your favor! Unlock cashback, exclusive rewards from select brands & special access to curated products & experiences. Upgrade your life bit by bit​
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5GBfOxA2sU/?igsh=OG9qeXlmeHQ1ZXhl
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Core value prop :
upgrade to CRED UPI & get cashback to kill your credit card bills. Every payment is rewarding​

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JTBD framework to understand users motivations
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Job | goal | How CRED UPI Helps |
Functional | Facilitate Seamless and Efficient Payments | - Ease of Use: Simplifies payment processes with a user-friendly interface. - Speed: Enables instantaneous transfers and bill payments. - Integration: Supports payments across a wide range of merchants and service providers. |
Personal | Enhance Personal Financial Management and Convenience | - Convenience: Provides a unified platform for all transactions, reducing the need for multiple apps. - Tracking and Insights: Offers features to track spending and understand financial habits better. - Security: Ensures secure transactions for peace of mind. |
Financial | Optimize Financial Benefits and Manage Payments Efficiently | - Rewards and Offers: Integrates with CRED’s reward system to provide benefits for UPI transactions. - Cashback: Offers opportunities for cashback or discounts on certain payments. - Payment Management: Helps in managing various financial obligations, multiple cards and avoiding late fees on bill payments |
social | Improve Social Interactions and Reputation | - Ease of Splitting Bills: Facilitates easy splitting of expenses with friends or family. - Status and Exclusivity: Enhances social status due to association with CRED’s premium user base. - Social Proof: Provides a seamless rewarding experience ( get them to experience the AHA moment) that users can share, reflecting tech-savviness and financial management skills. |
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Pain points with current flow
Functional | Facilitate Seamless and Efficient Payments | Speed 1. Gpay UI has barely changed since tspeedhey began - finding the features on the app is easier & has been a standard experience throughout Since CRED is still exploring |
Personal & financial | Enhance Personal Financial Management and Convenience Optimize Financial Benefits and Manage Payments Efficiently | Tracking & insights features to track spending and understand financial habits better. With CRED money growing + product integrations coming into play, this should definitely help user’s use case |
social | Improve Social Interactions and Reputation | Splitting bills
Not a feature today since SOW with split wise users were 30% But we could look at exploring this option Splitting bills to be used as NTC (new to CRED) funnel. |
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Let’s talk about what has worked so far
Content loops
​1. Prime Ad Slots:
- What it Involved: CRED strategically purchased ad slots during IPL matches, specifically targeting the prime times when the most viewers are watching. These slots are highly coveted because they guarantee a large and engaged audience.
- How it Works:
- Massive Reach: IPL is one of the most-watched sporting events in India, attracting millions of viewers across diverse demographics, particularly in the 18-60 age range. By advertising during prime slots, CRED ensures its UPI service reaches a vast audience, maximizing visibility.
- Enhanced Brand Recognition: Regular exposure to the brand during such a popular event increases brand recognition. Viewers are more likely to remember and recognize the CRED UPI brand due to repeated, high-visibility placements.
- Association with Popular Culture: By aligning with a major cultural event like IPL, CRED taps into the excitement and energy surrounding the event, making the brand more relatable and memorable.
2.IPL Campaigns:
- What it Involved: CRED’s ads during IPL were not just regular commercials; they were creatively designed, often featuring celebrities, humor, and unique storytelling that resonated with the audience.
- How it Works:
- Celebrity Endorsements: Featuring well-known celebrities in ads helps in grabbing the viewer’s attention. Celebrities bring their own fan base, which increases the likelihood of the ad being noticed and remembered.
- Humorous and Engaging Content: Ads that are funny or emotionally engaging tend to stick in people’s minds. CRED’s ads are designed to be memorable, making viewers more likely to recall the brand and explore the service.
- Viral Potential: Creative and humorous ads are more likely to be shared on social media, extending their reach beyond the initial TV broadcast. This can create a viral effect, where the ad gains additional traction through word-of-mouth and social sharing.
Effectiveness of the Strategy:
- Increased Brand Recall: The combination of high-visibility placements and engaging content makes CRED UPI more memorable. When viewers see the ad repeatedly, especially in an enjoyable format, they are more likely to remember and consider using the service.
- Broadened Audience Reach: By advertising during IPL, CRED taps into a wide demographic, ensuring that a large and diverse audience is aware of its UPI service.
- Brand Positioning: Associating CRED UPI with a high-profile event like IPL helps position the brand as dynamic, relevant, and in touch with current trends, which can enhance its appeal to the target audience.
Conclusion:
These strategies work by leveraging the massive viewership and cultural significance of IPL, combined with engaging and memorable ad content, to increase brand visibility, recall, and ultimately, user adoption of CRED UPI. The goal is to make CRED UPI top-of-mind for viewers, encouraging them to use the service in their daily lives.
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IN - APP CAMPAIGNS
Kill the bill - during IPL
​Campaign Overview
- Objective: Increase UPI adoption and engagement on CRED by leveraging the IPL season's massive viewership through an in-app campaign named "Kill the Bill" with a streaks narrative.
- Key Features:
- Streaks Narrative: Users were encouraged to complete a series of transactions (streaks) to "kill the bill," thereby incentivizing repeated use of CRED's UPI service.
- Timing: The campaign was strategically launched during the IPL to tap into the heightened user activity and engagement.
Results
- User Growth and Retention:
- New User Growth (NTUs):
- 1 Million New Users (NTUs): The campaign brought in 1 million new users to CRED, with 1.05 million previously inactive users (zombies) returning to the platform, a 20% increase over the baseline.
- Adoption:
- 2.4 Million Users on UPI: This represents a 60-70% increase over the usual monthly baseline, and adoption rates more than doubled during the payment cycle.
- Retention:
- 1.5 Million Users Retained in Month 1: Out of the new adopters, 1.5 million users continued to use CRED’s UPI service into the next month.
- Engagement Metrics:
- Streak Completion:
- 40% Streak Completion Rate: 40% of users who started a streak completed it, indicating strong engagement. However, there was a noted challenge with users who only completed one transaction.
- Zombie Resurrection:
- 1 Million Zombies Resurrected: This was a 20% increase over the baseline, showing the campaign's effectiveness in re-engaging previously inactive users.
Learnings and Insights
- Streak Completion Rate:
- Challenge: The streak completion rate has a natural upper limit, as many users only performed one transaction. These users often lacked a strong use-case to return for the streak, leading to reduced recall of CRED after the first transaction.
- Insight: There is a need to improve post-adoption recall and engagement to encourage repeat use. Users who don’t return the next day are less likely to re-engage with the streak narrative, leading to lower overall retention.
- Leveraging "Pay Online" as TOFU (Top of the Funnel) for Streaks:
- Challenge: Starting streaks without explicit user intent made it difficult to educate users about the streak, drive session engagement, and build intent to use SNP (Send to Pay) or P2P (Peer-to-Peer) transactions.
- Solution: Integrate the "Pay Online" channel (CRED Pay on merchant funnels) as a TOFU strategy for streaks. This could help users naturally discover and engage with streaks as they perform transactions, thereby increasing session frequency and streak completion.
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Current REFERRAL PROGRAM
Pop challenge - A gamified experience which let's you invite your friends to play the game on the app creating a referral loop
- Objective: Boost user engagement by encouraging existing users (referees) to bring new users (referred) to CRED through a referral program. Both parties receive cashback upon the first payment made on the app.
- Key Features:
- Cashback Incentives: Both the referee and referred users receive cashback after the referred user's first payment.
- Referral Streaks: Users can unlock additional cashbacks by referring more users and reaching higher levels.
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​Metrics and Performance
- Referral Funnel:
- Discovery to Invite: 20-25% of users who discover the referral program within a 30-day period go on to send invites.
- Invite to Sign-Up Conversion: 15-20% of users who are invited actually sign up for CRED.
- Sign-Up to Payer Conversion: 20-25% of users who sign up make a payment, triggering the cashback reward.
- Cashback Claim Rates:
- Referees: 90% of users who refer others claim their cashback within 7 days of the referred user's first payment.
- Referred Users: 50% of referred users claim their cashback within 7 days of making their first payment.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC):
- Current Trend: CAC is trending at Rs. 350 per new user acquired through the referral program.
- Month-on-Month Data:
- Referral Streaks: Users are incentivized to refer more people to unlock successive levels of cashback rewards.
Pain Points and Challenges
- Discovery and Visibility:
- Problem: Many power users report that they’ve referred others only through word of mouth because they were unaware of the referral program’s location within the app.
- Insight: The low visibility of the referral program is a significant barrier. Users who might be inclined to refer others don’t know where to find the referral feature on the app, leading to missed opportunities.
- User Assumptions:
- Problem: Some users assume that others are already using CRED due to the brand’s strong reputation, which may reduce their motivation to refer friends.
- Insight: This assumption limits the natural growth potential through referrals, as users might not feel the need to actively encourage others to join.
- Missed Referral Opportunities:
- Problem: There are limited touchpoints where users are reminded about the referral program, particularly during high-engagement moments such as paying their credit card bills (the "AHA" moment).
- Solution: Increase touchpoints and notifications related to the referral program, especially during critical user activities like bill payments. This can prompt users to think about referring friends at a moment when they are most engaged with the app.
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What are some key levers that can be used to grow here
Product Integrations:
- Why Product Integrations?
- Increase User Engagement: By integrating CRED’s services into platforms where users already spend a significant amount of time, we can naturally increase the frequency and volume of interactions. This leads to higher engagement and retention, as users find CRED’s offerings seamlessly embedded in their daily activities.
- Leverage Existing User Bases especially with pay online being available on merchant funnels Partnering with established platforms or financial services allows CRED to tap into their user bases, expanding our reach without the need for direct customer acquisition efforts. This can be particularly effective in attracting users who may not have considered CRED otherwise.
- Enhance Value Proposition: Product integrations can enhance the overall value proposition of CRED by offering users additional benefits, such as exclusive rewards or personalized financial products. This strengthens user loyalty and makes CRED a more integral part of their financial lives.
2. Referral Program:
- Why Redesign the Referral Program?
- Drive Organic Growth: A well-designed referral program can harness the power of word-of-mouth, turning satisfied users into brand advocates. By making the referral process more accessible and rewarding, we can accelerate user growth organically and cost-effectively.
- Improve Conversion Rates: The current referral funnel shows potential for improvement, particularly in the areas of discovery and visibility. By redesigning the program to address these pain points, we can increase the conversion rates at each stage of the referral process, from discovery to sign-up and eventual activation.
- Capitalize on High-Engagement Moments: By integrating referral prompts into high-engagement moments within the app, such as during payment transactions, we can increase the likelihood that users will refer friends when they are most satisfied with the service AKA during the AHA moment experience. This not only boosts the number of referrals but also enhances the quality of the referred users, leading to better retention and engagement rates.
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Product Integration Strategy: CRED UPI and Split Bill Feature
Overview:
The goal of this strategy is to increase user adoption of CRED’s P2P (peer-to-peer) and P2M (peer-to-merchant) payment features, particularly in high-transacting categories like food and dining. By introducing a “Split Bill” feature within the CRED UPI and CRED Pay ecosystem, we can encourage more users to engage with the platform, drive new user acquisition, and increase frequency of product usage.
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Let’s look at some key places users are making P2M transactions
- High Transacting Categories:
- Food and Dining:
- Fast food restaurants & delivery services
- Eating places and restaurants
- Bakeries
- Retail and Consumer Goods:
- Department stores
- Drug stores and pharmacies
- Digital Goods:
- Online games and digital content
- Telecommunication and Utilities:
- Telecommunication services
- Utility payments (electricity, gas, water)
- Fuel and Transportation:
- Medium Transacting Categories:
- Beverages and Grocery Shops:
- Grocery stores, dairies, liquor stores
- Financial and Brokerage Services:
- Debt collection, securities brokers
- Niche Markets and Repair Services:
- Online marketplaces, repair shops
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​Feature Implementation: Split Bill with CRED UPI
Scenario:
- A user makes a large order at a restaurant or on a food delivery platform like Swiggy using CRED Pay or CRED UPI.
- After completing the payment, the user is presented with an option to "Split the Bill" with friends.
User Journey:
- Payment Completion:
- After the user pays for the order, CRED offers a call-out at the merchant’s checkout: “Split the bill with your friends & earn cashback. Use it to reduce your credit card bill.”
- Split Bill Feature:
- In-App Prompt: The user is prompted to split the bill by selecting contacts from their phone.
- Notification to Friends:
- Existing CRED Users: Receive an in-app notification and a push notification (PN) to pay their share.
- New or Inactive Users(without app): Receive a WhatsApp message with a referral link, encouraging them to download CRED or return to the app to complete the payment.
- Cashback Incentives:
- New to CRED Users: Receive a higher cashback amount to encourage sign-up and first-time usage.
- New to CRED Pay Users: Receive a medium cashback incentive to promote adoption of the payment feature.
- Existing Active Users: Receive a lower cashback incentive to maintain engagement.
- Zombie Users (those who have uninstalled the app/dormant user): Receive a higher cashback to incentivize re-engagement.
- Core Product Loop Integration:
- The cashback earned from splitting the bill can be used to pay off credit card bills, reinforcing the core value proposition of CRED and bringing users back to the app to experience the AHA moment
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expected outcomes:
- Increase in UPI and CRED Pay Adoption:
- The split bill feature will drive more users to adopt CRED’s payment services, particularly in high-frequency transaction categories like food and dining.
- Enhanced User Engagement:
- By providing a seamless and rewarding way to split bills, users are more likely to engage with the app frequently, leading to higher retention rates.
- Referral and Acquisition Loop:
- The integration of split bills as a referral mechanism effectively turns existing users into ambassadors, encouraging their friends to join CRED and complete transactions to unlock rewards.
- Reactivation of Inactive Users:
- The targeted cashback incentives for zombie users will help re-engage individuals who have stopped using the app, driving them back into the CRED ecosystem.
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Referral programm redesigning
BRAG worthy aspect of being on CRED : exclusive access to users with a premium credit score.
AND Earn Rewards for Paying Bills: CRED revolutionized the credit card payment process by offering users rewards for simply paying their bills on time, turning a mundane task into a rewarding experience.
Current referral program : POP CHALLENGE​
- Objective: Boost user engagement by encouraging existing users (referees) to bring new users (referred) to CRED through a referral program. Both parties receive cashback upon the first payment made on the app.
- Key Features:
- Cashback Incentives: Both the referee and referred users receive cashback after the referred user's first payment.
- Referral Streaks: Users can unlock additional cashbacks by referring more users and reaching higher levels.
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​Metrics and Performance
- Referral Funnel:
- Discovery to Invite: 20-25% of users who discover the referral program within a 30-day period go on to send invites.
- Invite to Sign-Up Conversion: 15-20% of users who are invited actually sign up for CRED.
- Sign-Up to Payer Conversion: 20-25% of users who sign up make a payment, triggering the cashback reward.
- Cashback Claim Rates:
- Referees: 90% of users who refer others claim their cashback within 7 days of the referred user's first payment.
- Referred Users: 50% of referred users claim their cashback within 7 days of making their first payment.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC):
- Current Trend: CAC is trending at Rs. 350 per new user acquired through the referral program.
- Month-on-Month Data:
- Referral Streaks: Users are incentivized to refer more people to unlock successive levels of cashback rewards.
Current pain points
- Discovery and Visibility:
- Problem: Many power users report that they’ve referred others only through word of mouth because they were unaware of the referral program’s location within the app.
- Insight: The low visibility of the referral program is a significant barrier. Users who might be inclined to refer others don’t know where to find the referral feature on the app, leading to missed opportunities.
- User Assumptions:
- Problem: Some users assume that others are already using CRED due to the brand’s strong reputation, which may reduce their motivation to refer friends.
- Insight: This assumption limits the natural growth potential through referrals, as users might not feel the need to actively encourage others to join.
- Missed Referral Opportunities:
- Problem: There are limited touchpoints where users are reminded about the referral program, particularly during high-engagement moments such as paying their credit card bills (the "AHA" moment).
- Solution: Increase touchpoints and notifications related to the referral program, especially during critical user activities like bill payments. This can prompt users to think about referring friends at a moment when they are most engaged with the app.
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Objective : increasing touch points & trigger moments to solve for pain points of users and keeping leaderboard intact
Post Payment Success Screen visibility :
- Scenario: After the user completes a payment, the success screen should include a clear, visible referral prompt.
- Prompt: Display banner on the payment success screen that encourages users to refer friends and earn extra rewards.
- Messaging: “Payment successful! Invite friends to CRED and earn cashback when they join and pay!”
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​Cashback Redemption Page:
- Scenario: When a user is about to redeem or has just redeemed their cashback.
- Prompt: A referral banner should be displayed on the cashback redemption screen, suggesting they refer friends to maximize their rewards.
- Messaging: “claim now and stand a chance to earn more! refer friends now and earn extra cashback"
or
- Prompt: Send a push notification encouraging them to share the experience with friends.
- Messaging: “Congratulations on earning ₹X! Share CRED with friends and earn more for every successful referral.”
Referral Streak Challenges: - Scenario: Monthly or seasonal challenges instead of continous timeframe
- Prompt: Encourage users to refer a certain number of friends within a specific timeframe to unlock special rewards.
- Messaging: “Referral Streak Challenge: Invite 4 friends this month and unlock 2x cashback!”
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Similar to only fridays - Coin drops - another gameified experience for users to optimise the usage of their CRED coins
A referral system integrated with rewards today where users can use their CRED coins to participate in “Coin Drops” that give them a chance to win exclusive rewards by inviting friends.
Coin Drop Event:
- Event Setup: Hosting periodic “Coin Drop” events in app where users can use their CRED coins to enter a draw. Each entry increases their chances of winning rewards based on the number of friends they invite.
- Entry Cost: Users spend a set number of CRED coins (e.g., 1000 coins) to enter each Coin Drop.
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Referral Integration:
- Invite Mechanism: For each friend they invite who signs up and engages with CRED, users receive additional entries into the Coin Drop.
Reward system
- Prizes: Offering a range of prizes, all exclusive larger prizes like apple products or Nike sneakers etc.
- Winners: Draw winners randomly from the pool of entries at the end of each Coin Drop event. Announce winners via in-app webview to social proof the winners & also additionally send notifications and email.
Expected outcomes
​Apple Products:
- Higher CAC means it’s more expensive to acquire each user.
- High-Value Reward Impact: This might attract a lot of users initially but may not be sustainable long-term due to high costs.
Nike Sneakers:
- Lower CAC makes it more cost-effective.
- Moderate Reward Impact: Still attractive, but with lower costs, it’s easier to scale.
Additional Considerations
- Conversion Rate: If the actual conversion rate is different from the assumed 20%, CAC will need adjustment.
- Referral Quality: Higher-quality referrals might improve the conversion rate, impacting CAC positively.
- Budget: Ensure the rewards fit within the budget and align with long-term growth strategies.
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​we hope this helped you break the cold start problem!
Reminder: This is not the only format to follow, feel free to edit it as you wish!
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