India’s biggest, home grown online classified portal Quikr is introducing two new features starting today under program called Quikr NXT. The new features include Free home delivery of goods purchased on their platform and instant chat between buyers and sellers.
Both of these features would be a first for any online classified site in India.
Free Delivery
Earlier, Quikr sellers were left on their own to arrange the delivery of goods sold on the website. With the introduction of this new feature, it is expected that the transaction between buyers and sellers will become easier.
Pranay Chulet, Founder and CEO, Quikr said, “Delivery services in this category are a very local phenomenon and for that we are looking at tying up with local or regional movers and packers,”
In fact, they had been testing this feature for the last few months, and as per their statement, 50% of transactions increased once free shipping was introduced. As of now, this service would be introduced in Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai in the next 3 months.
Recently, Flipkart had introduced 4 hour delivery mechanism, which created quite a buzz among ecommerce watchers. Logistics and delivery are the biggest pain points when it comes to transacting online, and Quikr has realized this fact gradually.
Messenger Service
In the existing format, buyers and sellers can communicate via emails and phones before finalizing on the transaction, but the problem is that its time taking. As observed by Quikr, instant messaging can help bring down the time in the completion of transaction.
The service was being tested in various cities for the last few months, and the results are encouraging.
Puneet said, “For used goods, it used to take two-three days for a sale, but with the messaging we have seen that time come down to less than a day in some cases, “
It seems that these new services would be introduced for paid subscribers of Quikr. While explaining the rationale behind these ideas, Puneet said, “This will help us in monetizing. Now a small business owner, who buys a package of listings, can see the value and have a record of the deals struck through us.”
Here is a teaser for ‘Quikr Nxt’ programme, under which both of these features are being introduced:
As per Quikr, they are facilitating sales worth $4 billion (Rs 25,000 crore) every month, which can receive a boost of 30-40% after the introducing free delivery and instant chat service. In September last year, Quikr received $60 million funding from Tiger Global, on a valuation of $300 million.
It’s main competitor in India is Olx, which was founded in US in the year 2006 and is currently owned by Naspers. Quikr was founded two years later in 2008, and is often cited as an example of Indian online market-place growth story. Late last year, Junglee also entered into Indian online classifieds industry, thereby making it a three-sided fight for dominance in India.
Craigslist.com is world’s biggest online classified site, which is reportedly worth $5 billion as of now. Although they have never revealed their financial statements, their founder, Craig Newmark is worth $400 million as of September, 2013.
[…] has rolled out the Doorstep service on its app, mobile site, desktop site as well as Quikr NXT, its pioneering messaging service that allows consumers to make negotiations and payments real […]
One of the best app for mobile platform and i think it is India’s top Horizontal Classified site. I have sold my Maruti Suzuki VXi RS Edition within 6 Hours…..isn’t that great.