Auto component e-retailer Boodmo registers 10,000 customers in FY 2018

Domestic start-up Boodmo, a market place for genuine and aftermarket auto spare parts, which started operation in FY2016-17, has claimed that it served 10,000 customers in FY 2017-18, with approximate 40 percent of returning users and a rising conversion rate.

The start-up claims for FY 2017-18, it saw an average of 400,000 visitors a month, which translates to a growth of 200 percent YoY, and more than 10,000 customers in the last financial year, it now aims to double sales in FY 2018-19.

Yevgen Sokolnikov, co-founder and CEO, Boodmo said, “Almost 10,000 customers were served so far, with approximately 40 percent of returning users and rising conversion rate, we optimistically look forward to the growth in next financial year.”

Speaking on the future plan of the online marketplace, Sokolnikov, said, “We are going to open new hubs in Tier 1 cities to serve quicker delivery in one to two days, to wider our vendor and customer base. This will require large capital and Boodmo already secured funds for next year expansion.”

Digitisation of information and money movement are the core business proposition of auto spare parts marketplace and connectivity facilitates new business opportunities. As the e-commerce automotive ecosystem is opening to powerful non-traditional players, digitisation is truly a disruptive trend right from sales, payments to the entire supply and delivery chain. Digitisation is a stepping stone to promote transparency and curb counterfeit in the business.

According to Sokolnikov one of the main challenges for the auto industry has been to tackle the problem of counterfeit products. As this low quality parts not only pose threat to a vehicle’s performance, but could also jeopardise the safety of the vehicle and the occupants. It states that it is commonly known that this counterfeited products are about 20 to 30 percent cheaper than genuine parts, and hence find an easy access to the market.

The company states that another challenge for the e-commerce business is that languages pose as a big barrier in serving the end customer at pan-India scale. In India, the language diversity where the dialects changes every 100km, e-commerce entities which rely on call-centres face a lot of problems in communicating with customers. This will need more reliance on digitalised information flow that will help to overcome this hurdle and scale-up faster.