Digital sales: explained
The last thing you’d expect from a bank is to leave money on the table — but by neglecting digital sales, that’s exactly what many are doing.
by Backbase
What is digital sales?
Broadly speaking, digital sales is how companies use digital channels and tools to sell their products and services. Banks and credit unions can leverage digital sales at all stages of the customer journey, from increasing conversions and improving the account opening success rate, to upselling and cross-selling other products, such as loans.
As for the benefits, financial institutions that successfully employ digital sales report greater monetization of traffic and increased profitability — up to 20% per year, in fact.[1]
However, across much of the banking sector, the digital sales process is broken.
Opening a bank account has traditionally been inconvenient, to put it mildly. Forms require extensive information, and customers then need to visit a branch to complete the application.
Meanwhile, challengers like Monzo and Revolut have reinvented the sign-up experience and shifted expectations along the way. Customers want simple, fast, and all from the comfort of their own home.
So now the incumbents are getting left behind. And they can’t afford to miss out on customers who have become accustomed to the slick experience delivered by the latest generation of apps. Not with digitally-savvy challengers in close pursuit, eyeing up their market share.
Employees suffer too. Legacy systems not only reduce efficiency, they also disrupt customer service.
Introducing Digital Sales: Explained
To help banks fully understand digital sales and improve the customer journey, we’re going to publish a series of blog posts over the coming weeks that explore the benefits, explain how to assess ROI and define stakeholder needs, and highlight obstacles. But first, let’s take a closer look at the current landscape.
[1] https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/banks-long-way-excellence-digital-sales