Poland: Easy and Convenient Online Shopping with Citi Handlowy

Online shopping allows customers to save time and money. Now, thanks to the solutions offered by Citi Handlowy, it has become even more convenient. The Unikasa service has made it possible for customers to pay for online purchases in selected shops and Citibank credit cards allow them to individually decide whether or not they want to pay for their online purchase in monthly installments.

In the era of the Internet more and more Poles turn to online shopping. According to the results of e-consumers’ market research carried out by Digitas and Millward Brown SMG/KRC, as many as 71% of customers of e-shops plan on shopping online more frequently. The products that are most often purchased online are movies and music DVDs, cosmetics, home appliances, cars, and food products. For the maximum convenience of Internet shoppers, Citi Handlowy, in cooperation with eCard Company, has developed a solution that makes online shopping much easier. When using a Citibank credit card to pay for purchases in e-shops supported by eCard, the customers of Citi Handlowy can now divide each payment exceeding PLN 300 into monthly installments. When making a payment with the card, all they have to do is to indicate the preferred number of installments in the system (from 6 to 24), says Piotr Siwiec, Head of Credit Cards Management Bureau at Citi Handlowy. For each installment payment option the system will display the monthly payment amount. After the customer accepts the payment terms, the transaction is immediately moved to the “Comfort" installment payment plan. Each month the installment will be added to the credit card minimum payment and become due on the card payment date. The customer will receive a credit card statement with the information about the installment amount as well as about the remaining amount due and the number of installments remaining to be paid.

“That’s yet another step in the development of our credit offering" says Piotr Siwiec from Citi Handlowy. “We are an unquestionable leader in the Polish market in terms of the number and value of credit card transactions. Our efforts are aimed at making it easier for our customers to use Citibank credit cards also while Internet shopping.

“A true measure of the popularity of our credit cards is the fact that in the first quarter of 2008 Citi Handlowy acquired 60,000 new Citibank credit card clients. As a result, the number of Citibank credit cards issued by the bank in Poland exceeded 866,000"

“Another solution making online shopping easy is offered by Unikasa as part of a joint project with eCard. Previously customers of e-shops paid for their purchases at the post office. As of March 2007 they have been able to do it at the checkout counter in supermarkets. To benefit from this option all they have to do is to choose Unikasa as a method of payment when placing their order at an e-shop and then print out an automatically generated confirmation with a barcode on it. When doing shopping in a store that belongs to the Unikasa network they can pay for the item purchased on the Internet in cash. Within three working days the money is credited to the account of the e-merchant, who sends the goods. That’s a perfect solution for customers who often pay for their purchases in cash and do not have a credit card,“ sums up Sebastian Kucharek, Head of Cash Management Products Development Department at Citi Handlowy. “An additional benefit is the fact that the e-merchant applies a lower delivery charge.”

This solution is even more convenient and practical as over 400 shops in Poland have joined the Unikasa network and their number is still growing. At present Unikasa terminals are located in the largest supermarket chains, such as Tesco and Real, in Savia and Elea shops as well as in the customer service locations of Telekomunikacja Polska. There is a network of authorized points – Unikasa Partner – which currently consists of almost 100 outlets.