Expanding product verticals and deepening engagement in key categories: OLX India's Siddharth Agrawal

New Delhi: As the festive season unfolds, OLX India is gearing up to harness increased consumer spending with key collaborations—its latest collaboration being with IDFC Bank. 

Siddharth Agrawal, Chief Business Officer (Autos) at OLX India, revealed in his exclusive chat with Bestmediainfo.com that OLX is now partnering with IDFC First Bank to offer tailored, end-to-end, used vehicle financing customer solutions. customers. 

In the past, OLX partnered with leading players in the used cars and used bikes sector, one with Cars24 and the other with Royal Enfield. 

This new offering with IDFC FIRST Bank, being the first and exclusive partner on board, aims to provide OLX customers access to “quick and easy vehicle financing solutions” directly on the OLX platform. Herein, buyers are being attracted to avail easy financing solutions while buying pre-owned cars and bikes, avoiding the hassle of visiting multiple websites and apps. 

As part of this collaboration, IDFC FIRST Bank will offer personalised finance options across pre-owned cars and pre-owned two-wheelers on the OLX platform across the country, enabling its customers with all necessary means to facilitate quick turn-around from discovery to ownership.

Following its acquisition by Cartrade Tech in the first half of 2024, OLX was already on the path of a significant strategic shift. “We are focusing on expanding our product verticals and deepening engagement in high-value categories like Autos, Smartphones, Consumer Durables, and Real Estate,” said Agrawal. It is also broadening its real estate offerings, featuring new property listings from top developers. This expansion aims to provide users with access to a wide range of new commercial and residential properties, enhancing their search experience.

OLX India, known for its role in the online classified space, is targeting the increased consumer activity typical of the festive season. With a strong user base and a diverse portfolio, the platform is implementing a series of focused strategies to drive transactions and user interactions. Agrawal discusses how the company is addressing the unique challenges and opportunities presented by this high-traffic period. 

“Festivals are a key growth driver for OLX. As consumers are on a shopping spree, specifically in categories like cars, bikes, mobiles, and electronics, and that leads to a surge in their supply as well as increased demand for used goods in the burgeoning middle-class consumer segments,” Agrawal explained.

He further provided a break-down of OLX’s festive outlook: “For sellers, that includes dealers, given our unique proposition of being the largest platform for used goods, the marketing objective is to remind the seller about OLX, as most of them would have used OLX in the past already, However, for buyers, the primary objective is to create increased awareness about OLX.”

When asked about the initiatives undertaken to drive the festive momentum, Agrawal highlighted the below key initiatives by OLX:

Festive schemes and contests: Designed to attract and engage B2B customers, including special offers and contests aimed at upgrading and acquiring new users.

Sales team contests: To drive internal engagement and performance within the sales organisation.

On-platform contests: To increase consumer adoption and interaction with the platform.

Social media campaigns: Utilising Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to enhance user engagement and drive acquisition.

Dealer meets: Focused on maintaining and strengthening relationships with paid customers. 

Given OLX’s focus on business-oriented users, Agrawal emphasised on the platform’s marketing initiatives as tailored and targeted: “For our paid customers, our marketing is more targeted, delivering a customised approach to engage business users effectively.” In this direction, OLX has begun to push its festive marketing efforts with new product releases, on-ground recruitment drives and festive sales team initiatives. For consumer engagement, OLX is planning significant on-platform campaigns for major events like Dussehra and New Year, supported by extensive social media outreach and scaled-up CRM capabilities to enhance user interaction.

“Social media will be used extensively to amplify the platform’s brand visibility, reaching our users. We have also significantly scaled up our CRM capabilities, with the contribution from this channel having grown substantially in the last few months—and will be used to create more awareness about our campaigns with our user base,” Agrawal highlighted.

Their digital strategy includes mainly performance marketing campaigns aimed at driving acquisition and expanding the seller base. While across social media, the key sites are Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to engage e-commerce-savvy customers. But what stands out as market trends in the current industry landscape is the heightened focus on digital platforms to improve their offerings through personalisation and customisation. While the core of this trend depends on consumer insights and data, influencer and content marketing further allow a wider reach in terms of audiences. The values of sustainability and ethics stands sacrosanct for the platforms, as Agrawal highlighted, and immersive shopping utilising AR and VR technologies is what the platform is eyeing upon.

“Our goal is to increase OLX's relevance and drive repeat demand from users already familiar with our platform,” Agrawal said. Therefore, reflecting a continued emphasis on the foundation of its market relevance with heavy investments in digital marketing to leverage its substantial user base. With nearly 35 million monthly active users, OLX, Agrawal is optimistic about the festive season, wherein he “anticipates strong demand across key categories and is ready to capture this opportunity with the platform’s enhanced strategies.”