OLX is undergoing a complete overhaul as part of a global brand reform

OLX is undergoing a complete overhaul as part of a global brand reform. Has it covered all the bases?

Today’s consumer no longer goes shopping, but is shopping all the time and everywhere. And in a truly global online marketplace, competition is no longer limited to local shops during regular business hours, said a KPMG study.

OLX.in, which single-handedly created the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) selling market segment in India, reckons that as a big opportunity. A reason why it decided to diversify with gusto after after almost 13 years in India. For starters, OLX has acquired a job portal and launched a chain of pre-owned car sales showrooms offline. To make customers aware of its intentions, it has also undertaken a rebranding exercise complete with a new app, a sharp new logo and tagline. All this will be supported by an advertising campaign across television, print and digital in seven regional languages.

Sushil Kumar, general manager, OLX India, says a key focus area for the company is to intensify customer-centricity by offering users a hassle-free platform. “Our research showed we had to expand the portfolio of offerings to our loyal consumers. Our new app will sharply target the millennial population and offer everything she wants,” he adds.

What does the recent acquisition of job portal Aasanjobs and the launch of 50 CashMyCar stores bring to the table? Since 2011, the firm has aggressively targeted the “for sale” category and very consciously developed a second-hand goods vertical on the site. The buyout of Aasanjobs resonates with that strategy. Says Kumar, “We are looking to cement our position in the jobs classifieds market in India. The blue-grey segment in India is a 60 million workforce. The acquisition will help us introduce more efficient solutions to this segment given OLX’s massive reach and scale.”

The company’s joint venture with the Frontier Car Group to foray into offline retail of pre-owned cars will address the convenience-seeking customer who needs a one-stop solution to sell her pre-owned car. “OLX already has over 80 per cent share in the pre-owned car market (online and offline combined) in India and this acquisition will enable us to strengthen our position. We aim to expand our presence to over 150 outlets by 2021 across 40 cities,” says Kumar.

Kumar says that the offline stores for pre-owned cars will mirror the growth of their online platform. “Clearly, there is space for multiple players in this market, but we are confident in our strategy,” he adds. In India, 4 million pre-owned cars (SIAM) are sold annually, which is higher than the number of new passenger cars which hit the road every year. The other players include the likes of CarDekho, Carnation, Cars24, Droom and Quikr Cars. Some major players in the passenger vehicles market have dedicated arms for used cars too.

Then there is a new ad with a snappy tagline “set hai”. With 50 million monthly active users already, the company aims to double the count over the next 18 months. OLX’s new brand communication reflects its new focus — the millennials — “who are always on the move, seeking for more choices and consuming more and more content on their devices”. Remember, India will have 410 million millennials by 2020 (Morgan Stanley). As millennials continue to enter the workforce, their online shopping volumes are expected to surge and even surpass the levels of older generations. 

Fast-growing competition, together with consumer demand for richer seamless experiences means that retailers need to rethink their strategy. For many retailers, enhancing the online shopping with technology such as augmented and virtual reality is becoming at least as important as offering personalised ordering, payment and delivery options. To stay ahead of the curve, the firm must hone its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities. Currently, it generates over six billion page views every month and employs an array of technologies to make decisions faster based on the pageview data. “We will leverage new ML tools to iterate quickly on our products and offer more customer-centric features to users,” says Kumar. 

It has also spruced up the online platform. Browsers will be able to see posts from far-flung locations and not just posts in the vicinity; there are more filters so that the content on the website is more credible. Users can also report offensive and spam content. “In addition, there are real-time security tips for buyers and sellers in the chat experience,” says Kumar. Other features include voice messaging through which users can quickly speak to prospective buyers/sellers without leaving the platform or sharing their phone numbers, thereby ensuring better privacy of their personal details. “Customer-centricity plays a key role since OLX is a peer-to-peer marketplace,” says Kumar. “Analytics is at the heart of our operations. Our teams track user behaviour on the platform and once we have the data, we segment it further to understand what users are actually talking about, the categories they are looking for, the problems they are highlighting and so on. We leverage this data to hone our capabilities,” he adds.

N Chandramouli, founder, Trust Research Advisory, says OLX’s move reflects rare confidence. “Not many brands have the courage to admit openly that it has changed because the new generation did not relate to it in its old avatar,” he adds.

All said, excellent customer support is the number one loyalty-earning attribute for online marketplaces. Can OLX ace the game?

Key metrics

• Monthly active users: 50 million
• Monthly page views: 6 billion+
• Number of businesses on OLX: Over 70,000
• Presence: Across 4,000+ cities in India
• Key verticals: Automobile, jobs, real estate, mobiles