Why do we like online shopping so much? Is it just because our generation lives in a digital age and everyone is tech-savvy, that anything and everything we want is just a click or touch away? Or does convenience and confidence endowed by online e-commerce unlike traditional means drive our appetite? Both, I would say, may it be consumer durables, fashion stuffs, or automotive parts. With the advent of internet as a mass medium, e-commerce shopping is on the rise in India, thanks to steady increase in online shoppers and sales per users. The trend is fast catching up in the automotive parts retailing and aftermarket space too, we notice e-commerce platforms specialised in automotive spares proliferating in the recent times. Even OEMs and component suppliers are jacking up their online portals by listing out their products and purchase options. Cheaper price, convenience, easy availability and quick delivery, and a wide range of products are the most critical reasons for automotive customers to shop online.
Thus, online retailing is the next big thing that is rapidly revolutionising the entire automotive market scene. boodmo.com, a leading online platform that sells automotive parts, claims to be our new spare parts expert. Launched in August last year by Smart Parts Online Pvt. Ltd., the e-commerce firm’s vision is to become the one-stop solution for all car spares needs in India, by providing customers comprehensive and updated catalogues and database of components for every leading passenger car marque in India. It aims to compile and list out the prices and details of over 27 million items of automotive spares, primarily to the passenger car segment to start with. The Gurugram-based Boodmo is run by Ukrainian entrepreneurs Mr. Yevgen Sokolnikov and Mr. Oleksandr Danylenko, pooling together their leadership and experiences in the automotive and e-commerce businesses. Backed by vibrant technical and sales teams, they are quite conscious and aware of their new venture and challenges faced by their ‘sunrise’ business.
“The spare parts market in India is largely sprinkled and fragmented, therefore finding genuine or high-quality aftermarket car parts remains to be a big problem for a large number of customers, while at times people pay hefty prices without the guarantee of quality and compatibility”, observes Mr. Oleksandr Danylenko, Director of Operations and Finance, and Co-Founder of Boodmo. “We are engineering an integrated platform connecting suppliers and the end-users, thereby proving new ease to customers and business avenues to product makers by filling out the void”, he adds.
Mr. Yevgen Sokolnikov, Managing Partner and CEO, says that Boodmo offers the right way of finding the right parts for its customers, by providing comprehensive catalogues with exact photographs and technical data of the items, along with the seller information and product guarantee with easy and fair return or exchange options. The item pages also show all alternate products that are compatible with competitive pricing, giving en number of choices to buyers. “Keeping customer satisfied is crucial in e-commerce business to retain them, more so in the automotive parts retailing, as repeat customers are likely to give higher growth rates compared to new customers”, he shares.
Ensuring connect with suppliers and product quality is one of the biggest challenge that Boodmo team faces, revealed its founders. “All of our suppliers have their own traditional channels of sales, so making them to shift to new platforms is a bit tedious. At times, lack of proper catalogues pose even greater difficulties at the suppliers end, therefore compiling all relevant and key info regarding the product is necessary”, says Mr. Danylenko. The company’s quality team mandates every supplier to go through registration and quality checks for the products, to keep a tab on the infiltration of any sub-standard or spurious items into their database. But it is open to every standard component makers, both domestic and international, to ensure there is adequate availability and competition among alternate goods.
In terms of logistics and stock management, the Director of Operations feels Boodmo can deliver rare parts much faster and cheaper than OEM channels and distributors, making the lower turnaround time the prime USP of e-commerce platforms like theirs. “The Indian logistics network and operations are quite appreciable, we have contracts with ten logistics companies but we use extensively three logistics companies to gain pan-India access to deliver our products. We are constantly working to improve our reach in the remote hinterlands as well”, he states.
But, how does Boodmo win over the e-commerce activity undertaken by the suppliers and component makers themselves? Mr. Danylenko responds: “Although suppliers open up online sales in their own websites, their lack of experience in e-commerce and customer engagement is widely realised. We provide exclusivity to customers by empowering them with choices and information on the item, along with efficient delivery networks, dispatch logs, and we care about the packaging of the products, unlike suppliers and component makers.”
Asked on the retailing of parts for commercial vehicles, Boodmo founders felt that there is a greater demand for e-commerce retailing in the segment. In the next segment, the company will add CV spares into its inventory list, and is for sure the next big consumer base they are likely to cater to after passenger cars”, reveals Mr. Danylenko. For instance, Boodmo will start with catalogued spares for light commercial vehicles like Ashok Leyland Dost, Mahindra Jeeto, Tata Ace, etc. “Since our initial focus was on passenger cars, we have established our presence in almost every category in that segment. CV space is naturally our next target”, Mr. Sokolnikov asserts.
In the online automotive retailing, e-commerce platforms like Boodmo have to cater to both B2B and B2C customers. The traditional distribution chain (top-down) involving component makers, wholesalers, workshops, and finally the end-users is no longer intact. With the advent of independent online sellers and increasing technical awareness among vehicle owners, the customer base is getting broader. Apart from workshops (B2B) having technical know-how and abilities to assemble complex parts and standard end-users (B2C) without technical know-how, there are two new categories as well – “Do-it-for-me” customers (B2B2C and B2C2C) who purchase parts online but have them installed, either professionally or amateurish, and “Do-it-yourself” customers (B2C) with technical knowledge and interest to maintain and upgrade cars by themselves.
Boodmo seems to have realised this complex reality. Its founders agreed that understanding customer demands and tailoring products and channels to suit their unique needs is pre-requisite to stay successful in this business. “Our team is happy with the way we have progressed in the last one year, we are constantly working on to evolve business strategies to meet customer, product, and channel (online) demands”, they conclude.