We have been closely following the recent launch of Sohar International Bank’s latest mobile app. The update added a totally new set of features around ecosystem banking.
If you’re not familiar with the phrase, it’s relatively new amongst most banks in the GCC region. It refers to serving the full lifecycle needs of a set of customers, rather than just offering them standard banking services.
For example, the ability to browse and purchase adjacencies beyond traditional banking – insurance, movie tickets, digital credit (e.g. XBOX, PlayStation), flights, hotels and much more.
The team at Sohar International are way ahead of most of the marketplace both in Oman and across the GCC with their approach.
We asked one of our colleagues who is a customer of Sohar International to take some screenshots to show how the team have integrated ecosystem banking into their existing production application experience.
Here are some example screenshots of the implementation…
This is the app’s main screen:
Note the “My Life” and “My Goals” section above occupying some of the most valuable screen real estate of the app’s mains screen.
Users tap on these options there to get to this (ecosystem) screen:
The main categories are:
- Flights
- Hotels
- Recharge (of mobile phones in Oman)
- International Mobile Top up
- Gift cards
- Experiences
- Insurance
If you click into Flights, here’s the user-journey:
This leads to another screen….
Which, still within the app, leads to…
And so on.
Here is an example of how you can easily buy Experiences directly within the app:
We think this approach could be incredibly compelling, especially if the payment and fulfilment aspects are totally seamless.
For this reason, we are delighted to announce that we have awarded the team at Sohar International our “Best Ecosystem Banking App Award 2023“.
Congratulations all – and we encourage you to continue to innovate in this space.
Assigned by Sebastien Parker
Senior Research Analyst
Global Banking Monitor
2nd October 2023
Notes: Read about our Award methodology here.
