Classifieds portal Quikr said it would expand from listings and offer an end-to-end platform facilitating price negotiations, payment, pickup and delivery, as it looks to monetise its business. The company has launched “Quikr Doorstep” in 25 cities across mobile phones, electronics appliances, and household furniture categories.
“We have tied up with third parties for collecting payments in an escrow account until delivery to facilitate fulfillment,” said Anurag Saran, Chief Product Officer, Quikr. However, the online experience, customer support and feedback will be managed by the company inhouse.
Currently, the Bengaluru-based startup is experimenting with different monetisation models including charging buyers a delivery fee and sellers a commission. “Quikr Doorstep addresses genuine consumer issues of trust, payment and logistics in consumer-to-consumer transactions in the country,” said Pranay Chulet, CEO, Quikr.
The company claims that new features including real-time negotiation, payments on the chat platform and the introduction of partial payment as an option for buyers, has boosted its transactions by ten times as compared to the last quarter. The move comes at a time when Amazon too, through its platform Junglee, has started facilitating end-to-end used-goods buying experience.
In September 2015, Amazon announced a pilot programme to transition Junglee, its Indian subsidiary, which was a price comparison website, into a marketplace. At that time, the portal had tiedup with Quikr to sell old and used products.
However, the partnership had been suspended and both companies decided to individually offer the services on their website. India’s largest internet company, Flipkart, too in January announced an exchange programme, starting with smartphones and television sets, that it expects will drive 20% of the sales in these categories by the end of this year.
Snapdeal too has backed Shopo — a marketplace for used goods. In April, Quikr raised $150 million or over Rs 900 crore from Tiger Global Management, Investment AB Kinnevik and Hong Kong based hedge fund Steadview Capital. The company competes with OLX, which is owned by South Africa’s Naspers.
Source: The Economic Times
