Save 50% on a 3-month Digiday+ membership. Ends Dec 5.
Add Overstock to the major retailers blurring the lines between retail, technology and financial services.
For the past few months, the 19-year-old e-commerce company has been quietly building out FinanceHub, a sort of marketplace for financial services that includes existing Overstock credit cards and insurance products; loans by LendingTree, Prosper and Sofi; a robo-adviser for automated investing, as of last week — and as of Tuesday morning, a discounted trading platform.
The platform and Overstock’s broader financial services “strategy” is nothing more than a natural extension of the company’s retail function, buying and selling consumer goods, according to Raj Karkara, Overstock’s vice president of loyalty and financial services.
“It’s all about providing the best value to the consumer: best in class products and experiences. The experience part is something that traditional financial institutions haven’t focused on but they’re turning that around now,” he said. “Consumers don’t want to sit and sign 50 documents, they just want to go online and get through the steps they need to take to move forward.”
More in Marketing
Ulta, Best Buy and Adidas dominate AI holiday shopping mentions
The brands that are seeing the biggest boost from this shift in consumer behavior are some of the biggest retailers.
U.K. retailer Boots leads brand efforts to invest in ad creative’s data layer
For media dollars to make an impact, brands need ad creative that actually hits. More CMOs are investing in pre- and post-flight measurement.
‘AI is permeating everything we do’: How Guitar Center developed 2 AI tools this year
This summer, the company launched a chatbot called Rig Advisor to help customers find the right instruments and products.
Ad position: web_bfu