Clover.com.au customers stayed put during market volatility

Australia’s friendliest investing platform clover.com.au has passed the test of customer retention during recent market volatility due to the US stock market plunging to lows not seen in the last two years.

Many investors, reeling from the recent pullback in the US sharemarket that commenced on 5 February after the stellar returns of 2017, reacted by pulling out their investments. In the US, two of the largest robo-advisors - Wealthfront and Betterment - saw their websites crash during this major market correction.

“It’s only natural that customers would be concerned about the recent market volatility,” says Sahil Kaura, Clover’s Co-founder and Co-CEO.

“When you’re investing, a decrease in the value of your portfolio is scary. You might worry if you made the right decision or consider selling your portfolio to try and time the market.”

In a testament to Clover’s customers and their right approach towards long term investing, a calm and disciplined behaviour towards their investments was seen.

Clover’s website experienced an unusual spike in logins with a 140% increase in website traffic over 24 hours as customers logged in to view their portfolio performance during the highly volatile markets.

“Across all our user accounts, there was a significant jump in activity amongst our customers during the first week of February,” says Gareth Townsend Clover’s Co-CEO and CTO.

“But we did not see any unusual withdrawal activity or customers wanting to rapidly change their portfolio risk during this time.”

Despite critiques of digital advice and investment platforms who questioned whether or not customers of robo-advisors would make rash decisions without human advisement, Clover.com.au’s customer remained calm and controlled in their investment strategy during this period of heightened market volatility.

“We prioritise educating and informing our customers about market volatility and the nature of investing during our customised onboarding process,” says Kaura.

“We do a lot of work in our onboarding phase to educate customers and arm them with information to make informed decisions around their investments.”

Clover.com.au customised onboarding informs customers that their investment portfolios take into in account multiple market cycles and that volatility is a normal part of sharemarket investing.

“We stress to our customers through our onboarding process, that when you invest, there will be bad days in the market,” says Kaura.

A Clover portfolio is built for the longer term and bad days aren’t a surprise to portfolios. Kaura advises that the best course of action is to stay disciplined and stick to your long term strategy.

“You can’t control what markets do from day to day, but you can control your actions and exhibit discipline in sticking to your investment strategy,” says Kaura.

“There will be good and bad days in the marketplace, but we are pleased to see that our customers exhibited trust and knowledge in their investment portfolio and our service during this stressful time in the markets.”