After Snapdeal, Flipkart to sell bikes and cars

After real estate, now its time for the automobile space to be gobbled up by e-commerce.

The trend was started by domestic e-commerce player Snapdeal with the launch of its Snapdeal Motors last month platform under which it started offering an integrated buying experience including online booking and bank loan approvals. While the company has partnered with Hero Motors and Piaggio to sell motorcycles and mini trucks on its platform, it tied up with Mahindra and Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki and Datsun to sell four-wheelers.

Flipkart, Snapdeal's rival has followed the same trend. Citing it as a pilot, the domestic e-commerce player has tied up with local dealers of Bengaluru - Khivraj Motors for Bajaj bikes and Kalyani Motors for Maruti Suzuki - to sell automobiles on its platform for the first time

"There is a paradigm shift in the way people shop online today, with more and more unconventional categories like automobiles and auto accessories, small home appliances, personal care and jewellery gaining popularity," Business Standard quoted Anil Goteti, vice-president, business, at Flipkart, as replying to an e-mail.

The paper also reported that the company was actually encouraging its employees with offers to buy vehicles from its partners on the marketplace.

The move can be only be seen as a follow up on the platform's automobiles accesories sales figures. According to Flipkart, automobile accessories is already among the top 10 sale categories on its platform, largely in Bengaluru and followed by Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

"Evidenced through the latest data as revealed by FlipTrends, a comprehensive and in-depth view into how India shops online, automobiles emerged as one of the fastest growing categories online," said Goteti.

"Following this trend, Flipkart is now ready to expand this category and add automobiles under the umbrella. Ease and convenience of online shopping, for millions of Indians, is what is driving phenomenal growth in the sector and we are happy to catalyse (this for) the automobile industry," Goteti told Business Standard.