OLX Autos, the recently-integrated automobile business of OLX India, is planning to ramp up its physical infrastructure and bolster the provision of value-added services such as warranty, insurance, road-side assistance and financing, a top company official said.
Currently, OLX Autos has around 100 stores, and it plans to increase this to over 130 stores in the next few months, Amit Kumar, CEO of OLX Autos India, told BusinessLine . In the long-term, the company has bigger expansion plans when it comes to its physical footprints, he said.
On December 2, OLX India announced the launch of its new car buying and selling model, OLX Autos, which integrates its online business with its hitherto offline brand CashMyCar. CashMyCar is now rebranded as OLX Autos stores.
Expanding online platform
OLX Autos’ online platform already has a reach of over 3,000 cities, and with the integration of its online and offline businesses, the company is looking at ramping up its physical infrastructure at a rapid pace to increase its catchment area, Kumar explained. As for the value-added services, these were introduced in the last few months and the company is looking at growing the ability of these services as the business scales up, in a bid to improve the customer’s experience of buying a used car, he said.
OLX Autos India is an important part of the OLX Group’s overall global strategy, said Kumar. After the lockdown restrictions to curb the Covid-19 pandemic were lifted, the recovery in the OLX Group’s automobile business was led by India, Mexico, the US and Indonesia, said Kumar.
Olx automobile business contributes to nearly half of OLX India’s revenue, he said
The demand and supply on OLX Autos are way ahead of the pre-Covid level, he said. In terms of the demand uptake, it’s up by 145 per cent compared to September-October of last year, while supply is up by 120-125 per cent, he said. The increased gap between demand and supply has translated into an increase in the price of used cars, he added.
Expectations from government
On expectations from the government to support the used cars market, he said that a single, national registry for vehicle registrations across India - which would serve as a single database for vehicles - can spur the used car ecosystem. The current process of vehicle migration is tedious and the auto industry has been demanding a simplified national registration policy, he said.
At present, migrating vehicles is a tedious process and requires a no objection certificate (NOC) from the origin RTO and re-registration by paying road tax in the new state. “Potential buyers expecting relocation to different States tend to avoid owning a vehicle. Implantation of the proposed national registration process will certainly increase the demand and help industry grow,” he explained.
“Today, the process of transacting the used car from one person to another is a complicated process, and does not recognise the dealer as an intermediate transacting person or entity. This recognition will also help the overall used car industry,” added Kumar.