Snapdeal betting big on selling automobiles

Online marketplace Snapdeal has partnered manufacturers to sell bikes and cars through its Snapdeal Motors initiative.

The New Delhi-based firm expects transactions facilitated through its platform to touch $2 billion (Rs13,129 crore) in the next two years for the automobile category.

"We have sold bikes through our platform and received a phenomenal response. Through Snapdeal Motors, we want to offer consumers benefits of e-commerce, including convenience and deep assortment," Snapdeal senior vice president partnerships and strategic initiatives Tony Navin told reporters in New Delhi.

With industry specific content and features like auto loans and exclusive auto partnerships, Snapdeal will move the needle on how e-commerce impacts our users' lives, he added.

Snapdeal Motors will be available through web, mobile and app platforms.

Hero MotoCorp and Piaggio are already available on the platform, while vehicles from Mahindra, Suzuki Motorcycles and Datsun will be available soon.

As part of the partnership, consumers will get a list of dealers in their neighbourhood once they have made a selection of vehicles. Users will be able to book vehicles by paying a booking amount.

They can also get financing options from the integrated RupeePower platform.

Snapdeal claims to have sold over 300,000 bikes through its platform as part of associations with Hero MotoCorp and others.

"With Snapdeal Motors, we are aiming to take this to the next level and provide customers a holistic buying experience marrying online and offline retail channels. This is going to be a very strong platform that we believe should clock over $2 billion in sales over the next two years," he said.

He added that about 5,000 dealers will come on board as part of the initiative.