Used car portals innovate to fill trust gap

Convincing customers remains the biggest challenge for online firms, as service tends to be hyperlocal barring in big cities

The used car market in India is almost entirely offline, despite the presence of online marketplaces of late. In a traditionally low-trust market, online firms are therefore banking on winning customer trust with innovative products and services.

Sandeep Agarwal, founder of Droom, says India is a $180-billion automobile market, including vehicles and services. Of this, only $1 billion is online. Droom enjoys 65 per cent share of this segment. He estimates online penetration would grow from 0.6 per cent now to 7 per cent by 2021, resulting in business of Rs 20 billion.

The three-year-old company, which has raised close to $65