The Hindu Business Line : Netizens drive up sales of automobile companies

New Delhi, Dec. 25 Surging number of surfers in the country is not only bringing windfall gains for the Internet portal business, but auto finance companies, dealers and manufacturers are also grabbing a fair share of the increased sales driven by savvy netizens.

Mumbai-based CarWale.com is one among the mushrooming online car portals that is being leveraged by players to tap into the online market. As a one-stop shop for all models, dealers and road prices, its blogs and product reviews attract buyers and sellers in both the new and used car market.

The modus operandi is simple. Dealers, manufacturers and financiers tap into the consumer data generated by online players, and then use their marketing skills to translate these into hardcore sales.

“The portal enables dealers and manufacturers to sell around 400-500 new cars every month in a city based on the sales leads that get generated, which are then passed on to respective players,” said Mr Gaurav Verma, Vice-President Consumer Sales, CarWale.com. The portal claims to attract 10 million page views and 9.5-lakh unique visitor hits every month.

Similarly, Chennai-headquartered carsalesindia.com finds that dealer advertisements on its portal have increased along with consumer hits. While the latter browse for information, dealers seek to leverage the potential customer base that logs on.

According to Ms Preena Shirin, Managing Director, Carsales, in Chennai 90 per cent of dealers are posting their advertisement on the Web, in Bangalore 50-60 per cent, while in Mumbai, where the portal offering is only a few months old, 40 per cent have already begun leveraging the platform.

So is the case with AutoIndia.com, which finds surfing augmenting its customer base. “The fact that the portal has been attracting advertisements from various auto players on a regular basis in itself goes to show its commercial value,” said Mr Vaibhav Aggarwal, Senior Alliance Manager, AutoIndia.