New Delhi,oct 23:
Buying a used car was never as simple as it is now in the era of technology. In fact, just a decade ago, someone looking for a used car needed to navigate through quite a maze before arriving upon a suitable one. Scouring through the classifieds and negotiating with brokers was a tedious yet necessary part of the process.Even after jumping through several hoops, customers would end up paying more for a used car without ascertaining its inadequacies. The industry itself was being bogged down due to the lack of transparency, inconvenience faced by customers and the huge gap in the quality required as opposed to the quality delivered. It was only when technological advances started disrupting the industry that it began to witness a significant surge in buyers.Today, the process of buying a second-hand car through advertisements is as good as extinct. Indian automobile players are rampantly going digital on the back of the growing popularity of online used car portals. These portals are transforming the Indian used car market in a major way by aggregating and bringing all the information about used cars including research, price quotes and comparison under one roof. Following are the significant changes that the used car buyers have witnessed and undergone thanks to technological innovation. Providing necessary information: Collating all the information about a used car is the most crucial part of buying one. Online used car portals are armed with a comprehensive range of insights into the car options available along with other vital information such as their condition, price and kilometers driven. Thanks to such well collated and presented information, customers can complete their purchases without having to step out of their homes.Customers can carry out extensive research about their preferred cars and shop seamlessly through their mobiles phones. What’s even more impressive is the fact they can get a pre-approval on their auto loan in just a few clicks. Therefore, the entire process of buying a used car takes much less time and effort than ever before.
Creating an omni-channel presence: Today, brands across industries are going digital and building an online presence for their business. While offering a seamless online experience for customers, leading used-car companies are also retaining their offline channels in order to create an all-encompassing presence that can cater to a variety of customers.While technology is enabling used car dealers to capture a larger audience, it is also facilitating the creation of a used-car marketplace that exists not just online but offline as well. Industry leaders are now building the necessary capabilities to keep up with their diverse set of customers by existing as online websites, mobile apps as well as brick-and-mortar stores to offer a unified omni-channel experience. Creating a new category of customers: Before technological intervention, used car buyers had very little to no knowledge about the car they were looking for. They shot arrows in the dark, hoping to find a suitable car through classified ads or even websites. Even after finding the perfect car, customers had to go through a long winding process of test-driving, submitting paper work, negotiating prices and other tedious formalities before they could finally take the car home.
