Buying vehicles online is quite a recent phenomenon – While electronics and apparel categories have always been front runners for online shoppers, Indians are now getting comfortable buying products in other categories as well. No one will raise an eyebrow when you say you booked a home through an online store or bought your furniture online!
Buying / Booking vehicles is now catching up fast in India – according to some estimates about 2-3 percent vehicles are now booked through online stores. Most major eCommerce players have started selling vehicles online.
Paytm, one of the largest mobile commerce players in India seems to have made good progress in auto segment. According to a press release sent to us, Paytm registered 3X growth in April 2016 to claim the top spot in Cars & Bikes segment.
The statement said that Paytm sold over 1000 bikes in the month of April this year, while contributing to 5% of Hero Electric’s pan India total month sales. Orders for two-wheelers came from over 100 different cities spread across 18 states in April. Interestingly, orders are not only coming from Urban cities, but from far flung towns and villages as well – customers from as far as Tinsukia in Assam and Ranipet in Tamil Nadu purchased bikes on Paytm.
Currently, Paytm offers vehicles from major brands like Honda, Hyundai, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra, Datsun, Hero, Yamaha and Mahindra.
Paytm claims to have over 800 dealers already functioning in their network and local commerce is being used to build this category. To further increase their market share in this segment, Paytm plans to launch the service of vehicle financing this month followed by offering insurance service in the coming months through third party partners.
Renu Satti, Vice President, Paytm said, “Overall 2-wheeler industry is around 16 million units (number of vehicles), and we are targeting at selling half a million bikes this year. By next quarter, we will have the largest network of dealers on our platform with an integrated solution for a customer looking to buy a bike. We also plan to do a few exclusive launches with OEMs like we did for Mahindra Gusto 125 last month.”
Reasons for Paytm’s Success in this Segment
One of the major reasons why Paytm has been able to forge ahead in this space is their attractive deals and cashback offers. When booked online, customers stand to get between Rs. 3000 to Rs. 5000 cashback on the vehicles. Most of the bikes available on Paytm are in the range between Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 50,000. With cashback of over 10 to 15 percent, it definitely becomes a lucrative deal for customers.
From the eCommerce companies, cars & bikes are high ticket items that make a lot of positive impact on their GMV – that’s precisely the reason that even Snapdeal and Flipkart are pursuing this segment seriously!
Honestly, I had never heard Paytm deals with bikes also. It is doing really awesome job in India!