CARMUDI Philippines, the online car-classifieds site, is giving an extra push to the already aggressive sales of the automotive industry as it aims to tap more private-vehicle sellers in addition to its commercial clients.
The online vehicle marketplace, which has been in operation since January 2014, lists mostly automobiles and motorcycles through its client base composed mainly of local car dealerships.
Private sellers currently take up a maximum 10 percent of the almost 900 to 1,000 average number of listings posted on the site every day. However, seeing that it is now capable of performing quality controls on private sellers’ listings, Carmudi Philippines said it aims to expand its reach into the customer-to-customer (C-to-C) market.
“The majority of platform users are still commercial car dealerships. That is where we decided to go because it is easy to acquire bulk inventory and it’s easy to conduct quality control because these are legitimate businesses. But now that we are at the point of doing the quality control, we’re going to expand our C-to-C market,” said Subir Lohani, managing director of Carmudi Philippines. The executive, however, declined to cite a target percentage.
“Private people can post online as well and we see the next growth in tapping C-to-C market or the private sellers online. Of course, we want to ensure the quality is assured and avoid fake listings,” added Lohani.
Reaching into the C-to-C market means opening the way for the sales of more secondhand vehicles, especially in provincial markets, a development that Carmudi aims to keep a tight watch on in order to protect car consumers.
Lohani said Carmudi checks with the Land Transportation Office for contact number verification, photo verification and pricing.
Carmudi counts among its clients the dealerships and distributors of mostly Japanese, South Korean and Chinese car brands in the Philippines, as well as banks that have accumulated an inventory of repossessed vehicles. East West Bank, Banco de Oro, PSBank and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) are counted as clients of Carmudi Philippines.
Aside from growing its client base, Lohani said it is also eyeing, among its commercial clients, more brands to sign on, citing “mid-level and luxury brands” such as Ford and Mercedes-Benz. Right now, Carmudi focuses on “volume-sellers” which are mostly Japanese and South Korean cars. Commercial clients are offered a range of business solutions by Carmudi to give them better market insight on the vehicles that buyers online are developing a taste for. Services include content management of the car listings and dealer-data analytics, such as month-to-month performance, and top vehicles sold.
The classified sites charge clients to post their listings per slot which is their source of earnings, as the online site acts as the marketing platform.
The web site enjoys 700,000 views per month, with 50 percent of them classified as unique views.
The car classified platform is present in 20 countries across the Americas, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific.