Net Protections, Inc. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Shin Shibata; “Net Protections”) has introduced NP Atobarai air, a BNPL service for the BtoC market including home visit services, for the new business, “Denki no SOS” launched on April 1, 2022 by Tohoku Electric Power Network Co., Inc. (headquartered in Sendai-shi, Miyagi; President: Mitsuhiro Sakamoto; “Tohoku Electric Power Network”).
Background to the Adoption of NP Atobarai air
Tohoku Electric Power Network maintains and inspects utility poles, electricity cables, etc. and also connects private homes to the power grid and its maintenance. On April 1, 2022, it launched a new business, Denki no SOS, which is a support service for dealing with electrical system-related problems that can occur in the home, such as power outages and short circuits.
Competition in the power sector is intensifying as a succession of new companies entering the industry in the wake of the liberalization of retail electricity sales in 2016 and the separation of power transmission and distribution in 2020. As a consequence of the competition, power companies need to not only ensure the stable supply of electricity, but also further enhance energy and operational efficiency to meet customers’ needs. Therefore, Tohoku Electric Power Network reviewed the most suitable payment method and payment collection for “Denki no SOS” that can improve customers’ convenience and the efficiency of billing operations.
Denki no SOS is a support service for dealing with electrical system-related problems that can occur in the home, such as power outages and short circuits. It involves the dispatch of an engineer to the user’s home to investigate the cause of the problem and inspect the electrical system. Regarding the payment method, it was initially considered direct cash collection from the customer after the service provision, but it was pointed out that direct cash collection might cause an inconvenience for users. If customers did not have cash at the time, the engineer would have to visit them again, which would increase their workload. Thus, Tohoku Electric Power Network has decided to bill service users instead of the direct cash collection.
Even so, its concerns were not fully allayed. If billing was handled in-house, it was expected that one or more of its employees would have to put the bills in envelopes and mail them out one by one. They would also have to confirm payments and send reminders to late-paying users, which would increase the workloads of these employees, burdening them in terms of time and also psychologically.
NP Atobarai air is a BtoC BNPL service including home visit services. Specifically, NP Atobarai air allows companies to provide their services with BNPL payment. Users can easily pay the bills that arrive after the use of services at convenience stores, banks, or post offices. Also, once the companies register the billing information such as recipient’s name and address, NP Atobarai air undertakes end-to-end billing operations from issuing invoices to payment collections and confirmation. It also guarantees to compensate for potential losses from delinquent payments, thus it allows merchants to improve the efficiency of billing operations and eliminate the risks associated with delinquencies.
In conclusion, Tohoku Electric Power Network has adopted NP Atobarai air for the purpose of improving the convenience for Denki no SOS users, the efficiency of the in-house billing operations, achieving DX (digital transformation) of billing operations, and establishing a new billing process for future business expansion.
Comments from Ryota Takahashi, Distribution Planning, Distribution Engineering Dept., Tohoku Electric Power Network Co., Inc.
“Denki no SOS” is our new business, so it’s vital that we need to run the business efficiently while keeping costs down. With the goals of improving operational efficiency and productivity, we have pursued various initiatives on a company-wide basis over the years, including replacing paper documents with digital data and developing/introducing new systems, but we realized that we also needed to enhance efficiency and achieve DX with respect to billing operations.
With the roll-out of “Denki no SOS,” one of the issues we had was how to ease the burden on our customer-facing employees who are dispatched to customers' homes and even bill them directly for the service. If they were to receive fees from users in cash, they would have to re-visit the homes for the users who had not had cash on the day of the service, and this would be costly in terms of time and travel expenses. They would also need to prepare change, and do the accounting when they got back to the office. So we were concerned that such tasks related to cash management would impose a big burden.
With NP Atobarai air, we would be able to fully outsource our billing operations, from issuing invoices to payment collections and confirmation, enabling us to not only reduce the burden on our frontline personnel, but also create a working environment for serving as many users as possible.
We also consider that NP Atobarai air is a user-friendly service. For example, in the event of an emergency with their electrical system, such as a power outage or a short circuit, they would not need to scramble to prepare cash. Instead, they would be able to pay the bill later at a convenience store, perhaps at the same time they pay other living expenses. All things considered, we have decided to introduce NP Atobarai air.
About Denki no SOS
“Denki no SOS” is a service that customers can call in an expert 24/7 by phone-call or online chat in the event of an electrical problem such as a power outage or short circuit caused by their home electrical system. An engineer from the nearest office will be dispatched and examine the electrical system, and if possible, perform a temporary repair. Advance registration is unnecessary. The service charge is a flat rate of JPY 7,700 (tax included) for each call-out.
For further information regarding Denki SOS: https://nw.tohoku-epco.co.jp/sos/(Japanese Only)
About NP Atobarai air
"NP Atobarai air" is B2C Buy Now Pay Later service for a wide variety of operational needs for day-to-day services. It can be used in various fields such as home appliance repair, maintenance, home/office cleaning, and rental services. With its simplified process, NP Atobarai air allows merchants to handle complicated procedures such as invoice issuing, collecting, payment confirmation, and customers` unpaid risk prevention. Also, it offers customers various payment options such as wire-transfer, convenience store payment, Post Office payment, and LINE Pay.
Service launched: July 2015
Service fee※: transaction fee starts from 2.9%~, monthly fee (tax excluded): JPY 0 ~ JPY 48,000, invoice fee (tax excluded): JPY 190
Main functions: credit screening, billing, collection, payment confirmation, payment reminder, risk management
For further information regarding NP Atobarai air:
https://www.netprotections.com/air (Japanese only)
※ Service fee is subject to change depending on businesses and service details.
※ A receipt of JPY 50,000 or more at convenience stores incurs an additional fee of JPY 200 as a revenue stamp cost.
※ A receipt of JPY 50,000 or more at Japan Post Bank or post office incurs an additional fee of JPY 210 by Japan Post Bank (tax included).
※ Cancellation after billing incurs JPY 190 (tax excluded) as the cost of invoice and postage.
※ Service could be restricted depending on the result of credit screening.
※ Service fee is tax-exempt.
Overview of Net Protections, Inc.
Net Protections is a pioneer company in BNPL payment services in Japan and leading the market with top market share(※1). In 2002, Net Protections (NP) released NP Atobarai, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) payment service that guarantees risk free payment for merchants in Japan for the first time. For the year ended March 31, 2021, NP Atobarai’s annual transaction volume has kept increasing 116% as compared to the previous fiscal year. NP Atobarai is used by numerous enterprises with over 15.8 million unique users in Japan(※2) and has processed more than 280 million transactions to date. In 2011, NP introduced NP Kakebarai, BtoB BNPL payment service that simplifies BtoB transaction process and guarantees risk free with its accumulated know-how. NP Kakebarai has grown 127% yearly and plays a role as the dominant BtoB payment service provider in Japan. In 2017, Net Protections released atone, BtoC BNPL payment service with membership benefits that offers better shopping experience. In 2018, NP introduced AFTEE, BtoC BNPL payment service in Taiwan. NP has accumulated transaction data since its first service launched, which enables the pursuit of new opportunities in the field of big data analysis and continues to pursue long-term business growth and organizational development to fulfill the mission to “Create New Standard.”
【Company Name】
Net Protections, Inc.
(Net Protections Holdings, Inc.[Code: 7383, Prime Market of Tokyo Stock Exchange] Group)
【CEO】
Shin Shibata
【Website】
https://corp.netprotections.com/
【Business Outline】
BtoC e-commerce Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Service, NP Atobarai
BtoB BNPL Service, NP Kakebarai
BtoC BNPL Service, NP Atobarai air for individual day-to-day operations
BtoC BNPL Service with membership benefits, atone
BtoC BNPL Service in Taiwan, AFTEE
Point Reward System, NP Point Club
【Founded】
January, 2000
【Capital】
JPY 100 million
【Headquarter】
SUMITOMO FUDOSAN KOJIMACHI FIRST BUILDING 5F, 4-2-6 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0083 Japan
※1）Calculated based on the estimated size of BNPL market in Japan of JPY882 billion in FY2020 and the aggregate of GMV of NP Atobarai and atone in FY2020 of JPY360 billion. The estimated size of BNPL market in Japan is provided from Yano Research Institute “Online Payment/Settlement Service Providers 2021”
※2）The number of individual unique users of NP Atobarai based on the matching of duplicative names and phone numbers during FY3/2021 (April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021).
Overview of Tohoku Electric Power Network Co., Inc.
【Company Name】
Tohoku Electric Power Network Co., Inc.
【President and Representative Director】
Mitsuhiro Sakamoto
【Website】
https://nw.tohoku-epco.co.jp/en/
【Founded】
April 1, 2019
【Capital】
24 billion JPY
【Headquarter】
1-7-1 Honcho, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 981-8551, Japan
Direct any inquiries regarding this release to:
Net Protections PR
Email : pr@netprotections.co.jp
