India needs catching up to do with regard to online buying and selling of

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cars. However, when it comes to online research on buying or selling, India is reasonably better placed than most other developing nations. Close to 40 per cent of actual new car buyers now carry out online research before making up their minds.

The percentage will be slightly higher if one takes into account buyers and sellers of used-cars, says J D Power and Associates’ Power Auto Online Media Study-2008.

Globally, a majority of new vehicle buyers—68 per cent— said they go online to get information about cars. This percentage, according to the study, has increased by 22 per cent since 2007.

For India, the rate of growth is much higher, as it started on a much lower base, according to industry figures.

“Two years ago, we used to record 7,000 online enquiries a day. The figure has moved up to 50,000 a day,” Mohit Dubey, chief executive officer (CEO), carwale.com, an automotive dealer, told Financial Chronicle.

Pankaj Patel, vice-president (India), Logix Microsystems, Bangalore which owns carazoo.com, another auto portal with interactive animation, featuring over 300 Indian car variants, said, “According to our estimates, nearly 40-45 per cent of actual buyers visit various automotive portals before taking a decision. It was hardly 2 per cent, two years ago.”

In India, online buying or selling is almost a non-starter. “Here, car is the second important and second-most expensive purchase after a home. Therefore, people like to go and physically touch and feel the product. Besides, it’s very difficult to carry out such high-value transactions through credit cards, that too online,” said Dubey.

Carwale, therefore, is building a separate team, which taking leads from the online enquiries and facilitates actual purchase. “We have sold 50 cars in Mumbai this way. Our next destination is Bangalore. Eventually, we will roll out this service across the country,” he added.

At present, there are 15 auto portals in India— autocar, autoindia, automartindia, bharatautomobiles, carazoo, carsalesindia, cartradeindia, carwale, driveninside, gaadi, indianautomobile, indiamoto, insibeam, overdrivenindia, zigwheels. But only a handful has the entire range of offerings.

The auto portal business is mostly a lead generation model. “We receive nearly 14,000 enquiries every month,” Patel said.

In the game of one-upmanship, these portals have started offering various value-additions. “Carazoo, featuring over 300 Indian car variants, gives users a virtual ‘touch and feel’ of almost all available cars in India. A ‘paint your car’ option allows you to view cars painted in all available colours, which is not possible even if you visit the showroom,” Patel added.

If the J D Power study is to be believed, satisfaction with an auto portal tends to increase consumer visits to dealers, as 75 per cent of shoppers who give high ratings on a site are likely to go to a dealer to test-drive a vehicle.