AmaraRaja · Multi-channel Platform

Warranty Platform

Replacing paper with trust — across an entire national distribution network

Failures hiding inside one paper warranty card

Personas — field-researched across cities and upcountry India

Features across one connected platform

Role

Design Lead

Company

AmaraRaja Batteries (Amaron)

Scope

Multi-channel · Web + Mobile

Research

Field Study · Cities + Upcountry India

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Web portal with PAN-India sales reports (left) and mobile QR scan + vehicle number plate recognition (right)

The Problem

Five failures hiding inside one paper warranty card

AmaraRaja Batteries sold Amaron-branded batteries through a network of franchise distributors and retailers spanning major cities to upcountry India. Every battery came with a physical warranty card. Every warranty claim, service request, incentive redemption, and customer record depended on that card — and on the paper processes built around it.

Customer

Lost card = lost warranty. No centralised record meant no way to verify legitimacy without the physical paper.

Cross-store

A traditional transaction only worked if the customer returned to the exact store of purchase. In a country where people move cities, a systemic service failure.

Retailer

Ambiguous incentives. No visibility into what was earned, what could be redeemed, or when rewards would be credited.

Fraud

No authentication mechanism. False claims were slow to detect, costly to investigate, and impossible to prevent systematically.

Insight

The warranty card was the trust contract between a manufacturer and its customers. When the paper system failed, both relationships suffered.

Research & Discovery

Into the field — not just the boardroom

Before designing anything, I led field studies across major cities and upcountry areas across India — physically visiting locations where batteries were sold, serviced, and where warranty claims were made. Three personas emerged, each representing a distinct role in the warranty ecosystem with different goals, frustrations, and device contexts.

End Customer

Raghunath Rao

Executive · Hyderabad

Wants to register quickly and move on. Doesn't understand policy details. Needs the process to be obvious, fast, and confirmable — without remembering a serial number.

Retailer / Battery Dealer

Raju P

Battery Dealer · New Delhi

Manages multiple brands simultaneously. Needs to register batteries at point of sale, track incentives earned, and access customer records when someone returns — without a printed card.

Franchise Owner

Rahul Singh

Franchise Owner · Hyderabad

Manages a franchise operation, not just a single store. Needs visibility into sales volume, incentive accruals, and team performance. Currently operates blind at the ground level.

"I am delighted to see the detailed & extensive research report done on our user groups; this gives clarity on problems exist in the current system."

— CEO, AmaraRaja Group of Companies

Key Design Decisions

The choices that shaped the platform

QR code scan as the primary registration entry point

Every Amaron battery shipped with a QR code. Scanning it captured the serial number instantly — no manual entry, no transcription error. The QR code wasn't just a UX convenience — it was the authentication mechanism that made fraud prevention possible. A registration tied to a physically scanned battery serial number cannot be fabricated after the fact.

Vehicle number plate scan — reducing friction at the highest drop-off point

Manually entering a vehicle registration number was the step with highest abandonment in early testing — people don't know their number plate by heart and don't want to walk back to their car. Camera-based number plate recognition solved this in a single interaction. The car is outside. The phone is in the customer's hand.

Multi-brand login — one app for dealers who carry competing brands

Field research revealed that most battery retailers carry Amaron, Exide, and Amco simultaneously. An app that required switching between brand-specific applications would fail at adoption. Multi-brand login let dealers manage all registrations from a single interface. An app that fits how dealers actually work gets used; one that doesn't, doesn't.

Transparent incentive dashboard — rebuilding trust with the distribution network

The incentive ambiguity problem wasn't solvable with better policy communication. Retailers and franchise owners needed to see earned incentives, pending redemptions, and their reward wallet in real time. Every rupee earned, every redemption made, every pending credit visible at any time. That visibility is what rebuilds trust — not policy documents.

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Web warranty registration portal (left) and mobile QR scan → serial capture → seller code → confirmation flow (right)

Impact & Reflection

A platform built from trust — not just technology

Customer

Centralised warranty registration — any store, any location across India
Same-store dependency eliminated via network locator
QR + plate scan registration — minimum friction at every touchpoint

Channel

Transparent incentive dashboard rebuilt trust with the distribution network
Multi-brand login drove adoption among retailers who carry competing brands
PAN-India sales reports — AmaraRaja's first real-time view of the national network

Business

QR-based registration created an auditable, fraud-resistant claims foundation
11-feature platform replaced a paper-only warranty ecosystem end-to-end
Research findings gave leadership clarity on problems they couldn't previously articulate

What this project reinforced

The warranty card wasn't just a piece of paper. It was a trust contract between a manufacturer and its customers — and between a brand and its distribution network. Designing a digital replacement isn't a digitisation project. It's a trust infrastructure project. Field research in a market like India, across cities and upcountry locations, is what makes that distinction visible before design begins — not after launch.