Online auto auction catching up fast

Online auction of automobiles is catching up finally, though you cannot probably completely rule out the need for personal visit to a dealer's garage.

Buying a car or a two-wheeler by a mere click of mouse is gradually gaining ground to co-exist with the spot buying.

eBay India (via its website www.ebay.in) has sold 6,000 cars and 30,000 bikes through online auction over the last one year. And this is about 10 per cent of the total organised sales of used cars, according to a leading Maruti True Value dealer.

Rediff.com and Indiatimes.com, too, are planning to foray into online auction of automobiles.

"On an average, daily over 100 vehicles are transacted on the eBay platform. We expect the rate of seller and buyer adoption of the eBay platform to continue to grow at a healthy rate over the next 12 months," said Rajan Mehra, country manager, New Ventures & Payments, eBay India. It charges a fee of 1 per cent from the seller, when an auction is through.

According to internet analysts, the online route is becoming a preferred auction option in the country, growing at an annual rate of 15 per cent.

The online auctioning of automobiles is done via consumer-to-consumer (C2C) and business-to-business (B2B) modes.

On the C2C marketplace, consumers trade automobiles and accessories on the eBay India site. In the B2B mode, sellers are primarily banks, financial institutions, fleet owners and corporates.

"The online auctioning is becoming popular with leading banks in the country for selling repossessed cars. Good price for your vehicles without losing much of time and resources is an advantage with online auctioning," said an ICICI Bank official.

According to a leading internet analyst, the benefits that online auction offers include a good opportunity to market your product, access to thousands of quality brands at one place, online certification of sellers making the process transparency, an efficient mechanism for price discovery.

Even banks have buyers encouraging enough for them to go in for online auction.

Personal cars like Tata Indica, Mahindra Scorpio, Honda City, Chevrolet Optra, Toyota Qualis, Wagon R, Tata Indigo, Maruti 800 and Ford Ikon, and two-wheelers like Hero Honda Splendor, Bajaj CT 100, Royal Enfield and Hero Honda Pulsar are among the highly transacted vehicles on the eBay site, said Mehra.

In top gear

10 % of total organised sales of used cars & bikes done through net

Online auctioneers charge 1 % from the seller

Rediff.com and Indiatimes.com plan to start online auction of automobiles

ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and IDBI Bank prefer online auction

Online marketplace is growing at 15 %, annually

Cars such asTata Indica, Mahindra Scorpio, Honda City, Chevrolet Optra, Toyota Qualis, Wagon R, Tata Indigo, Maruti 800 and Ford Ikon, and two-wheelers like Hero Honda Splendor, Bajaj CT 100, Royal Enfield and Hero Honda Pulsar are highly transacted online