Acquisition project | Lazypay
Situation
Imagine you woke up at 8:30 AM on Monday morning for a 9 AM in-person office. Your office is 25 mins from your location and you only have 5 mins to pack stuff, get ready and leave. Hence, you had to get ready, book a cab, and book a doughnut and coffee for breakfast in the office so that you don't look like a last-night party zombie.
You start getting ready and the first thing you do is book a cab because the meal is something that can be sorted on the go (thanks to the perks of living in a tier 1 city). You open your Uber and while booking your ride it shows the previous amount is pending. You have no bandwidth to pay for the ride & book but yet to have to. After paying via pre-saved details (OTP/UPI PIN), a cab comes and in the meanwhile you get ready.
In 5 mins, somehow you manage to look good, get down a hungry stomach and sit in the cab to order your food. Immediately you remember that your manager has said to pull up an important deck for Monday morning presentation. The presentation is ready, but you need to run it across while ordering your breakfast. While down to payment, again you have to go through the same hassle of OTP/UPI PIN.
Now let's look at the problem statement. You were doing some small transactions. It was on some daily popular apps which have high use case frequency. But, while paying, every time you have to go through the hassle of UPI/PIN to make the payment. This becomes even more tedious if your details are not saved and if OTP does not arrive on time.
Lazypay
Lazypay as a platform is solving this problem. Lazypay is a B2C BNPL (buy now pay later) platform which offers credits with multi-model use cases. This not only solves the problem of checkouts but also gives the merchants higher conversions for checkout, an alternative yet simple option to COD, and hence simplifies the return process.
Problem Statement - 🤔
Hence the solution is where users get no OTP or UPI pins & payment is successful.
About the product -
Lazypay is a B2C BNPL (buy now pay later) platform which offers credits with multi-model use cases such as
- Check out in 1-click: Paylater is based on their integration with popular 250+ channels & 45K+ online stores, they offer a quick payout option with 15 days of credit*. The USP is no OTP or PINs, quick settlement in 15 days with no hidden charges and integration of payment options with multiple platforms.
- Pay utility bills with credit: Billpay is based on multiple merchant bill pay integration, tracking & one-click payment of bills. It is available only to select existing LazyPay users & they get allocated amounts which eventually are used to pay multiple bills with one-place tracking & timely reminders.
- Personal Loans: Xpressloans are the larger size credits with no collateral (up to 5 lakhs). With quick 5-minute approval, simple KYC, bank details, setting up auto-pay and "signing a loan agreement"(e-mandate).
*Note - With KYC they offer a limit of 30 days (double the normal billing cycle)
Requirements? ✋
- Age: 22-55
- City: Tier I & II
- Income type - Stable
For Loans & KYC (extra documents)
- Bank account to receive the loan
- mobile number - To fetch CIBIL scores
- One ID & PAN
User Journey😅
About the brand 🕵️ -
There has been a shift from the BPNL segment to the loan segment with the prior one focusing more on product adoption (pull factor). This can be concluded from -
- On website & App 💻-
Now they are placing their Xpressloan on the landing page - their main focus of the product is on credit dispersal.
On their website, they have around 6 crore or 60 Million eligible customers. Along with that, they focus on the pay later feature and bill pay (only to selected users) is extended to the users.
- Also on the organic search - they are prioritizing their loan dispersal more -
Campaigns - For app adoption - they want more people to open the app.
On their social, they post about -
- the app integration with other popular expenditure apps (Zomato, Zepto) to gain trust
- commercials targeted ads - explaining the product requirement
- Social messages to educate the users towards financial adoption & hence the product
Product Integration -
Following are the payment channels (as per the website 250+) with which they have this option available of BNPL during checkout.
Understanding the user👻:
User 1: - Ram Ranjan 🧚♂️
Ram,23, is a recent graduate and just started his work with an MNC in tier 1 city. Now that he has to live at his own expense, he want his expenses should be easy to track. Also, sometimes, as city living is expensive, he needs a bit of credit which could be easily available.
Discovery :
Ram through his office colleagues came across a feature of BNPL with 15 days of credit. However, he was not sure how this worked and hence decided to try an app called Lazypay.
Conversion :
When he logged in, he got a credit of 5500 based on his phone number and demographic details. On further exploration of the app, he saw this app also has bill payment. He felt happy that he got an additional credit to do small transactions on 45k+ popular merchants.
Retention :
After successfully using the app for 2-3 months, his credit amount got increased to 15K with successful bill payment. Also, he went for KYC and now his credit days have increased from 15 days to 30 days.
User 2: Pulkit Anand 👨🏭
Pulkit, 37, is a mobile technician who repairs mobile for his business. He has had a mobile repair shop for the last 10 years. He has 2 kids, a wife & parents back at home. Since the family is large he has to work for extended hours to run his family along with his dependent wife. At times he needs personal loans just to buy the raw materials and pay them back immediately or with EMIs if the task requires some time for delivery. Also, he wants his little expenses on food, and groceries something that gets on credit paid by his wife or kid but later he has to pay. They all do not come to him for small payments and bother him.
Discovery:
Searching for credit based on income score on the web. While some apps gave them access to direct credit, some offered him an advance salary. But after scrolling down further he came across Lazypay where his need for credit and small expense. So he went ahead and logged in using his PAN details. He was eligible for 2.5 lakh of personal loans within hours. He used them to satisfy his shop requirements. Also, he got the BNPL approval for 7.5 K which he integrated with Zomato, Blinkit and Meesho.
Retention :
As he kept using both features, loans when required and paying later for small payments, he became eligible for a credit card. This also increased his CIBIL score. Also eventually after 3-4 months, his bill pay option was enabled which helped him to pay the recurring monthly mobile bill and electricity bill with 1 tap pay.
Understanding the Lazypay Fit and Success 🏋️
- Lazypay is popular among people who want to enable quick pay for small transactions.
- The Lazypay loan feature is also popular as people who initially are not involved in credit culture eventually get used to it and finally get eligible. Hence this is helping in building the habit.
- Also, their product suits - bill pay, pay later and loans offer to different users respective use cases and eventually the adoption of other features.
ICP Time 👨👩👧👦
Based on the specific user interviews, the following are the Ideal customer profiles (ICP) -
| Ideal customer profile (ICP) name | Manali | Naman |
|---|---|---|
| Age | 23-30 | 35-49 |
| JTBD | Make payment faster; Instant credit without PAN | Tracking of small |
| Income levels | 3+ LPA | 5+ LPA |
| Marriage | No | Yes |
Tech Adoption | High | Low to Medium |
| Location | Tier 1 | Tier 1 & II |
| Companies | New Age Startups, | MNCs, Govt Jobs, |
| Marital Status | Unmarried | Married |
| Where do they spend time? | Social Network - Instagram, Snapchat Food - Swiggy, Zomato Travel - Rapido, Uber OTT/Media - Prime, Hotstar, Youtube | Social Network - WhatsApp, Facebook, Insta Food - Zomato Travel - Ola, Uber OTT/Media - Jio Cinema, Prime, Hotstar |
Frequency of Transaction | High; (5+ times/ week) | Low to Medium (3-5 times/ Week) |
% of income spent | 5-10% | <5% |
Risk | Low as - | Medium to High |
| Pain points | Invisible late charges, | Safe exits, |
Other Payment Gateway used | UPI, debit cards, competitors | Credit card, UPI, cash |
Users are sometimes confused with the core value proposition of the product. They feel that if this platform is offering the BNPL, getting a pop-up for cards is a bit confusing. Also, they seem confused with credit amounts with loans and have a concern if their CIBIL score gets impact once they provide the details. This is something Lazypay might be acting after RBI financial guidelines (in recent years) but something to be watchful of (in comparison to competitors)
Task | Influencer | Blocker |
|---|---|---|
Adoption of 1-click | Fast checkout, | Lazypay credit card |
Billpay | Tracking of all | No Eligibility |
Xpressloan | Less paper-work | concern with existing |
Too many conflicts within the product which question the core value? Something to solve for Lazypay
Competitor -
This segment has many operators & also gets tough checks from the financial regulator. While some like Zestmoney had to close their operation, others like Simpl are surviving and thriving.
In the BNPL segment -
Product Name | Features | Pain Point |
|---|---|---|
|
| |
Zest Money |
|
|
In card-based BNPL service -
Product Name | Features | Pain Point |
|---|---|---|
UNI |
|
|
Competitor landscape -
Company Name | 1-tap pay | Integration | Details (Phone number, | Cashback | Autopay | Offline partnerships | Brand Partnership | Weak Areas | Strong Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Simpl | Yes | Have different integration | - | NA | Yes | No | 26K+ merchants Dunzo, | Not active in the bill | Leader in 1-tap |
UNI | No | Normal card with cashback; | PAN | Yes | Yes | Yes - QR & card | Functions like other card | No single | cashback; away |
Zest | No | Fund based on user CIBIl score | PAN | - | Yes | Yes- partnered with | 75K+ brands | Operation | EMI with credit card; |
Lazypay | Yes | Have different integration | For some features - | No; but if you are | Yes | 1-tap no; With card yes | Partnership limited; | No focus on | Old player; bill tracking |
Why Early stage company -
While some competitors (like UNI) are focusing on their card as a core product, their product has also solved the problem of credit crunch by advance salary credit for 15 days. Similarly, Zest has also been into solving the credit crush but without entering the card market by simple EMIs. Whereas Simpl has been the 1-tap pay leader, it has also focused on positioning itself to give a nudge by going for the product. Lazypay has been the combination of the products of the competitor with the core product now being a loan. Along with 1-pay feature on brands and merchants' expenditures, they also have a feature to pay bills on their platform which takes a lot of recurring expenses. Hence, it can be considered as the stage of early scaling stage.
Now the total market size is around
TAM (7 crore)
Top-down approach for calculation
- Total population - 140 cr
- Total population in tier 1 & II (top 10 tier II)- 30% ~ 40 crore
- Earning member ~50% (considering the other 50% as dependent) ~ 20 crore
- If the age group of 22-55 would be 35% of 20 crore ~ 7 crore customers. (This is similar with their app numbers)
- 10% would be in the formal sector(70 lakhs), 90% in the informal sector(6.3 crore)
SAM (2.5 crore)
- Out of 7 crore, almost less equally divide the tier I (3.5 crore) & tier II (3.5 crore) population
- Out of tier I organized sector will have 10% user base (As GenZ population would be 5% and 5% who wanna try the product) which is 7 lakh
- Out of tier II, unorganizsed sector we will have 50% in tier I (~1.6 crores) and 25% in tier II (~0.8 crore)
SOM (1.3 crore)
- Competition based on the model from
- Simpl - for the 1-tap market, Flexipay and ICICI pay later
- For the card market - UNI, SLice, and other formal channels
- For loans - From traditional and upcoming channels
- Own performance, rewards, customer experience and brand loyalty
Acquisition -
ICP Prioritization - ICP 1
Feature | ICP 1 Manali | ICP 2 Naman |
|---|---|---|
Adoption Curve | Low | High |
Frequency of use | High | Low |
Appetite to pay back (pocket size is small) | High | Medium |
TAM | Low | High |
Distribution potential | High | Low |
Experiment -
How to prioritize
Channel Prioritization Matrix
Channel Name | Cost | Flexibility | Effort | Lead time | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Organic | Low | Low | High | Low | Low |
(SEO,ASO) | High | High | Low | Low | Low |
Social media | Low | High | Low | High | Low |
Brand Integration | Low | High | High | Low | High |
Ads | High | High | Low | High | Low |
Blogs | Low | High | High | High | Low |
Referral | Low | High | Low | High | Lowan |
We are prioritizing for Referral & Social Media
Referral -
As per the channel prioritization metrics, referral is a popular way to get users added to the platform.
Target No achieved & who to ask for referral -
- We can ask referrals from user who have rated 5 star. 5 start validates the proposition that they have gone through the core value prop and hence have rated 5 star.
- Almost 5 Lakh on playstore and 1.5 Lakh on IOS
- With 6.5 lakh people referral - Take 10% of people referring and 50% of them signing = 32.5K new users acquired.
Right now, no active referral system.
How to discover.
Right now we are only prompt users who have given 5-star ratings. Hence, we can add the referral button on the home screen. 
(Using old screenshot)
How will the user discover -
Directly from the home page. More visibility more chances of referral.
The idea for a referral -
The JTBD is to increase more and more referrals. Hence, the strategy here that can be opted for is gradual rewards based on the referral. Also, at the same time, the user referring should have equal incentives via tiered referral awards. This can be done by getting them exclusive product features & product cash rewards.
No. of | Benefit (user) | Referee | Gets an option | Gets eligible for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 25% for new user(up to 50) | limit gets increased by | No | No |
2 | 25% for new user(up to 50) | limit gets increased by | No | Yes; 25% cashback (up to 50) for 1 pays |
3 | 25% for new user(up to 50) | limit gets increased by | Yes (up to 25%) | 25% cashback (up to 100) for 2 pays |
4 | 25% for new user(up to 50) | The limit gets increased by | Yes (up to 50%) | 25% cashback (up to 200) for 3 pays |
Also, there would be a tracking screen to track all the referrals, rewards and benefits. Channels for sharing can be WhatsApp.
The final design will look like this -
Since the current referral has been stopped - hence using wireframe to conceptualize.
Improving the social media presence -
Why is this important?
Right now, one of the aspects where Lazypay is really struggling is social media presence - This impacts user trust for the brand.
Platform | Subscriber/Followers | Like/Engagements | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
14.4K | 1K | very low subscriber | |
7.1K | 2K on reels; 20 Likes on post | Low engagement | |
Youtube | 6.1K | 36 videos in total, 1 M+ views | No recent videos |
11.1K | ~100 likes | Hackathons, hiring and |
To give a comparative analysis - Simpl has 200K followers on LinkedIn.
What? So the objective should be to make the presence on social media strong.
Reason? As our user base is quite high with 10M+ user in life time. In our case, our most users (ICPs) spends a lot of time on social media. Hence, having a presence online would give her trust. Also, this would also make her updated of the recent developments that are happening for the app.
Other benefits- This also has a low CAC and high user acquisition strategy.
How many user will get acquire? 5-10K users
Right now, we have active user are people who are on social media. Let say that with 1 crore life time users - around 1% are active on social media. With 1 lakh people we can engage around 5-10% of the people resulting in acquiring 5-10K new customer. Also the brand image will improve.
Current Strategy -
- On social media they are trying to create a presence where they want the user to land on their app/website.
This strategy not only improve their band image but also engages user to check the app.
What can be done additionally?
- Incentivizing people to follow the insta/twitter - Since users on this app have very low attention grasp. staying updated and promoting products with the recent news would be excellent. A recent example would be - comment puns around things like the India Vs Pakistan match; current affairs, popular TV series (amazon handled with lockey for Panchyat) memes jokes which have product significance around them. Also, engage people with content on reels.
One of the example could be posting this with credit match.
- Since LinkedIn is an important page for user onboarding as well as merchant onboarding - This page also needs to be updated. User interviews of employees who are working on the product, how exactly is the new feature immersive to the user, posting links of blogs with some context, brand partnerships, offline events videos and many more can be posted. Idea is to make the ecosystem for ICPs like Manali & Naman both aware & increase their trust.
Thanks for reading 🙂
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