Nearly 72% of used cars sold through OLX platform in India

India’s largest online marketplace OLX has also emerged as the biggest destination for transactions of used cars in India now, claims a new survey conducted by Frost and Sullivan in partnership with OLX.

According to the latest estimates, the platform is the market leader in the used car space registering over 370,000 listings of used cars per month, out of which approximately 200,000 cars get sold every month. 

Overall, there are 275,000 used cars sold in India every month and sales through OLX constitute a staggering 72% of all the used cars sold in India every month.

The number of cars sold by OLX per month is also bigger than the combined monthly sale of the two largest consumer automobile players in the country. Maruti Suzuki India and Hyundai Motor India, the two largest carmakers sold a combined 163,107 units in August, while the total new car sales during the month stood at 258,722 units.

The combined sale value of the sold cars on OLX put together is now equivalent to 1 billion dollars per month.

OLX is India’s number one marketplace for used goods including used cars, motorcycles, and household items, commanding 80% market share of the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) trade in the country. The auto category is the largest category by traffic on OLX, generating 45% of the traffic, resulting in 1.3 billion page-views, per month.

“OLX’s success in the used cars space is a result of three distinct customer benefits that the platform offers - Largest quantity of unique and high quality user-generated listings from car owners, great value for both buyers and sellers because of disintermediation, and maximum traffic driving a steady stream of used car buyers. These benefits, put together, have made OLX the most liquid market for used cars,” said Amarjit Singh Batra, CEO, OLX India.

The used car market in India has grown steadily in the last few years, driven by growing disposable incomes, better living standards and high penetration of internet and mobile resulting in ease of transactions. At present, India, which is slated to be among the top five global automotive markets by 2020, sees the pre-owned car market growing at over 15% a year (the organized segment is seeing over 25% growth).

Each car listing on OLX is viewed on an average more than 1000 times, and receives 11 unique buyer responses. OLX also receives 1.2 million buyer enquires on used cars every month. A regional break-up of the car listings shows 52% of them coming from metro markets of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. The remaining 48% of the listings come from non-metro cities. Last year, 4,000 cities and towns across India sold on OLX.

Just like the new car market, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata, Mahindra and Toyota, in that order are the most popular brands sold on OLX. While the Maruti Alto, Maruti Swift Dzire, Toyota Innova and the Mercedes C/E Class are the most popular models in Hatch, Sedan, SUV and premium cars respectively.

Commenting on the findings, Nandini Kelkar, director, Consumer Research Services, South Asia, Middle East & North Africa, Frost & Sullivan: “Now more and more people are using the online platform, and websites like OLX are being preferred to buy and sell ‘used’ vehicles. On one hand, the online buyer has a greater ‘choice’ in terms of variety of brands and models to choose from and on the other hand, the online seller has an opportunity to expand his potential buyer base beyond geographical boundaries. Transactions through online websites like OLX not only reduce both cost and time of searching and spreading the word through one’s network, they also give the user the liberty to decide whom to conduct the transaction with.” 

Also read: India’s pre-owned car market growing at over 15%