A bumper Diwali for second-hand goods online

With aggressive brand-building initiatives, the companies' advertising budgets ahead of Diwali is understood to have seen a 15% spike

It is not just the e-commerce majors like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal that are heightening their sales pitch to tap the festive-season bonanza; online companies dealing in second-hand goods, such as OLX and Quikr, too, are set for some fireworks this Diwali.

"Photo khench, Quikr pe bech!" (click a picture and sell it on Quikr!), says Quikr's tag line. Its lead rival in the listing and classified ad business, OLX, meanwhile, has tied up with Flipkart. It is encouraging people to sell their used wares on OLX and buy new products on Flipkart this festive season.

Selling second-hand goods, surely, was never this easy - even goats for Eid al-Adha have been listed on these sites. The lead players in this Rs 22,000-crore market (urban second-hand stocked goods), could see a traffic surge of over 50 per cent during the festival season, say industry experts.

"It is difficult to predict the trajectory for the festive season, but a 40 per cent rise in sales 10 days before Diwali is a healthy sign. We are on course and will easily surpass our target," says a person from the sales team of a company that buys and sells used products.

With aggressive brand-building initiatives, these companies' advertising budgets ahead of Diwali is understood to have seen a spike of about 15 per cent. Also, there has been a surge in online listings, as well as physical transactions.

OLX, an Argentine classifieds site launched in India in 2006, has 9.7 million product listings today. It is present in 96 countries and lists across 500 Indian cities. Used mobile phones, cars, motorcycles and home & kitchen appliances - the most popular categories for the company - are expected to see high growth as Diwali nears. OLX does not disclose India-specific numbers but industry estimates suggest its website here gets eight million unique users a month.

Similarly, Quikr claims to have about 10 million product listings on its website. It says it facilitates over one million transactions a month (including lead generation for small businesses) and has an estimated gross merchandise value of $2 billion. "We have seen a manifold growth since last year," says a Quikr executive who does not wish to be named.

As a value-add feature, Quikr's website is offering 'minimum selling price calculator' to help buyers and sellers understand if they are getting the right price. The feature gives predictive algorithm on the basis of latest market data. "This is our initiative to instil more confidence among buyers and bring more clarity in the pricing of second-hand goods," Pranay Chulet, founder & chief executive of Quikr, had told Business Standard in an earlier interaction.

Launched in 2008 by Chulet, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Management, Quikr has so far raised Rs 1,300 crore in eight rounds of funding. Tiger Global Management is the latest entrant in its investor pool, which includes Kinnevik, Matrix Partners and eBay. OLX is a Naspers-backed company.