There are innumerable issues and unprecedented aspects that the customer needs to tackle while buying a second hand bike, making the whole experience very stressful.
CredR, an online marketplace for Used Automobiles, realized this challenge among consumers and wanted to bring in an easier, convenient and more trustworthy process to mitigate the perils of buying pre-owned vehicles.
The startup was founded in 2015 by Sumit Chhazad, Nikhil Jain and Nittin Mittal. It is built on the foundation of making pre-owned vehicles buying process as convenient and delightful as making a new vehicle purchase.
"Our efforts are focused on making CredR a convenient, reliable and transparent online marketplace for used vehicles, which is easy to use and has sufficient information to help any customer to make an informed purchase, said Sumit to BWdisrupt.
Team BWDisrupt Interacts With Sumit Chhazad, Co-founder, Credr And Spoke To HimGenesisThe idea was born out of a personal experience. During college, my friend and I were hunting for a used bike since we thought it would be a smart and economical decision to invest in a second hand bike. We explored every means possible to find the bike we needed - local sellers, online listings, friends, family, neighbours, but nothing worked out for long. The whole process was very hectic and troublesome; we kept running from one dealer to another to find a used bike that fits our requirement. Finally we found one, after a lot of searching and seeking. Unfortunately we faced another set of problems with the vehicle post its purchase. The bike started creating problems every now and then. We realized how painstaking the process of buying a second two wheeler is and so we decided to create an easy and simple experience for buyers and sellers of used vehicles. The solution that we came up with was CredR.
OfferingsAll vehicles on our site are verified and quality checked by the team of Auto Experts and then rated as per our systematic rating algorithm, thus there is no room for any ambiguous pricing. The rating algorithm considers over 80 parameters before being listed on the portal. We also share a detailed inspection report for each bike, on the site allowing the consumer to read through and make an informed decision. We provide end-to-end assistance to our customers starting from selecting a bike to assisted purchase to post sale services. Some of the other unique features we offer, include free test ride, online bike reservation and easy loan facility. Our after sales services include free 6 months warranty; free 1 year roadside assistance, accidental cover of Rs. 2,00,000 and easy buy back policy. . An energetic, passionate and competent workforce backed with our support, direction and a friendly work culture that inspires people to innovate, is what keeps us going.
BarriersIn India, people are used to transacting offline, hence it’s a very big challenge to bring a ‘transaction led business model’ from offline to online. Second challenge is the diverse audience we cater to, with some being tech savvy while some absolutely tech ignorant. Communicating to this varied group of audience and thereby building credibility and trust towards pre-owned product purchase is tactically challenging, albeit exciting.
CompetitionSo far, we have no direct competition in the segment in which we operate. There are multiple player in the four-wheeler segment and also several classified portals that provide open marketplaces for buying and selling. However, our offering is unique and our listings are carefully curated so that we can offer the best.
Business ModelOur business is based on a transaction led model, earning depends on each and every transaction that takes place through our portal. In the future, we would be extending our arms to the post sales, value added services which will further extend our revenue streams.
Clientele and Expansion Plan We started in Mumbai in February 2015. We are now in five cities – Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Hyderabad – and soon we will be expanding to over 20 cities. Our initial focus was on getting our processes right. It's a complex business. We spent our time understanding the business and behaviour of people. Now that our processes are well set, we are good to go, and with investment also in place, we are already nearing 1000 transactions a day. We are optimistic in creating a strong brand image for CredR and ensure more traction from consumers willing to transact online. We also plan to introduce better technology and aim to eventually capture the overall pre-owned automobile market in India.
TractionOur website sees close to 4,00,000 unique visitors a month. Apart from this, our online communities have close to 1,00,000 followers and we clock close to 1 million impressions digitally, each month.
Funding & MonetizationCredR received a funding of $15 million in Series A from Fidelity’s Proprietary Investment Arm in August 2015. The funding is directed towards accelerating growth and expanding the company’s geographic and product presence. Prior to this, we had raised an undisclosed sum from Growthstory, the family office of K. Ganesh and his wife Meena Ganesh with a promising investment from Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal of Snapdeal and Amit Agarwal of Amazon.
Your Marketing Plans so that world know you..
We have strong in-house competence when it comes to marketing - offline and online. Our digital marketing initiatives revolve around targeted communication and identifying the needs of the consumer. Our offline modules help us to reach out to that audience that is not present online but has a high need for a two-wheeler. A good mix of digital ads, Facebook engagement, hyperlocal Bike Bazaars, strategic tie-ups with OEMs and mid-level outdoor advertising, etc. comprise our marketing plans for the next 12 months. We have a strong eye on optimizing our marketing spends in comparison to our sales revenues.
Market size and opportunityThe size of second hand two-wheeler market is at 15 million vehicles, making it a $10-12 billion market in India. There is a huge consumer demand for pre-owned 2-wheelers vehicles, across urban and Tier 2 – 3 markets, because of its affordability, easy commute and maintenance. However, this segment is currently very unorganized and cluttered with local players which make the process of buying a second hand bike quite cumbersome. Often it gets really tricky to buy a good second hand bike from the market owing to the inconvenience, unreliability and hidden transaction processes, and to add to it, there is no price standardization of the vehicle. There are innumerable issues and unprecedented aspects that the customer needs to tackle, making the whole experience very stressful.
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This is Meghna Shukla. She lives in Delhi. She is an engineering graduate and currently pursuing MBA from Jaypee Business School. She has a work experience of 2 years in content development. She loves to read and write.
