Success Story

SMFG India Credit Drives Increased Loan Applications with Pivotroots’ Expertise and VWO’s Experimentation Technology

30.65% click-through rate

About SMFG India Credit

SMFG India Credit is a well-established Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC-ICC) registered with the Reserve Bank of India and part of the SMBC Group. Since its inception in 2007, the company has developed a strong presence across India, serving over 2.95 million customers through 832 branches.

The company offers a wide range of lending solutions, including SME financing, personal loans, and vehicle and property-backed credit, all under one roof. Rural development funding is also a key focus of their mission.

To improve conversion rates and effectively engage with digital customers, SMFG India Credit partnered with Pivotroots, a leading digital marketing agency operating in both the UAE and India.

Pivotroots utilizes VWO for experience optimization, conducting campaigns to achieve measurable improvements in website performance and meet conversion goals.

“VWO has been an excellent platform to kickstart my experimentation journey. My first A/B test was a success, with the variation clearly outperforming the control. Despite initial challenges, the intuitive interface, strong support team, and structured training made the process smooth. VWO helped turn ideas into a measurable impact effectively.”

Mayank Anand
Digital Analyst

Goal

SMFG India Credit recognized that their personal loan eligibility widget served as a critical conversion point. The company aimed to enhance user engagement and increase clicks on the “Apply Now” button.

Observations

The Pivotroots team conducted a thorough analysis combining qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative insights were gathered through VWO Insights, VWO’s behavior analytics solution, which offers heatmaps, session recordings, surveys, funnel analysis, and form analytics.

The funnel analysis uncovered a critical issue. Users were dropping off at high rates after calculating their EMI. This exit point revealed where user motivation declined just before conversion.

VWO’s heatmaps and scroll maps highlighted another problem. The “Apply Now” button and EMI display sections received low interaction. Users focused their attention on less important areas.

Also, a heuristic audit revealed three key friction points:

The CTA button lacked visual emphasis and clear hierarchy
EMI values weren’t visually distinct enough for quick decision-making
Text alignment and microcopy didn’t effectively guide users toward conversion

These issues created barriers that prevented users from completing their applications.

Hypothesis

Based on the above observations, the Pivotroots team developed a focused hypothesis: Optimizing microcopy, UI layout, and visual hierarchy would improve user engagement and lead to more loan applications.

Tests run

The hypothesis was put to an A/B test using VWO. The Pivotroots team ran the experiment across both mobile and desktop versions of the page containing the personal loan widget.

The variation introduced four key improvements, detailed as follows:

Simplified layout with improved visual flow.
CTA button made more prominent and eye-catching.
EMI value highlighted for instant visibility.
Microcopy rewritten to be clearer and more action-oriented.

[VWO’s Visual Editor enables users to modify text, colors, contrast, images, and font sizes, as well as to add widgets or elements using simple drag-and-drop actions.]

Desktop

Mobile

The primary goal tracked was the click-through rate (CTR) on the “Apply Now” button. This metric directly reflected user engagement and intent to proceed after interacting with the eligibility widget.

[Setting up CTR tracking in VWO is simple. You select “Track Clicks on Element(s)” from the dropdown menu containing various goal options. Further, you simply enter the CSS selector path of the element you want to track, such as a call-to-action (CTA). This allows VWO to automatically measure the click-through rate (CTR).]

Result:

The variation outperformed the control throughout the test for both desktop and mobile. The redesigned experience successfully increased user interaction and engagement. The CTR of “Apply Now” improved by 12.82% for desktop and 30.65% for mobile.

Desktop

Mobile

Post-test learnings:

The test revealed two critical insights for future optimization efforts.

Trust signals and clarity proved essential for conversions. The refined “Apply Now” CTA made a clear difference, removing visual clutter helped users focus, and simplified copy under the EMI section guided decisions effectively. These design and copy improvements demonstrated their power to drive user action.
Conversion spikes during the test showed that timing and user intent played major roles. Campaign periods influenced results.

This finding highlights the need for contextual targeting and deeper audience segmentation in upcoming experiments.

Conclusion

Pivotroots’ strategic testing approach, supported by VWO’s optimization platform, yielded impressive results for SMFG India Credit. The company successfully improved the click-through rate of the “Apply Now” button by 12.82%.

Building on this achievement, Pivotroots has developed a comprehensive optimization roadmap for SMFG India Credit. This plan includes conducting in-depth segmentation analysis, testing new formats for EMI visualization, and streamlining loan eligibility processes to further enhance the user experience.

VWO has instilled confidence in agencies like Pivotroots to deliver measurable results for their clients. The platform facilitates behavior analysis, quick experiment setup, reliable testing, and the confident implementation of winning variations.

Looking to improve conversions for your business? VWO can help you achieve that. Start your free trial today and discover which changes can drive your conversions forward.