Carmudi Philippines, an automobile marketplace in the Philippines showed us some figures during a press conference recently, in Makati City. The e-Commerce website Carmudi, is dedicated only in marketing automobiles showed that car dealers in the country has changed how they reach to buyers.
Almost 70% of car buyers use the Internet to shop for either brand new or pre-owned car. About 50% go directly to classified ads, 35% use the social media to check pricing, the rest goes to blogs, forums and offline mode.
Based on Carmudi’s survey, the largest influencers on purchashing decisions are online sources, including Manufacturer sites, dealet sits, general internet searches (AKA Google search), and online classified sites like Carmudi. Other sources points to the offline platforms such us expos.
Car dealers in the country have become more digital when it comes to advertising their listings. Majority of the car dealers now are focused on listings through Internet. Online classified ads are also seen as great way to adverstise car listings.
Carmudi maintains a website and a mobile app which users can post their for sale vehicles. For individual sellers, posting is free, but for companies and dealers, it comes with a fee.
The Asean Automotive Federation report on the first half of 2014, noted that the Philippines is the fast-growing car market in the region, ahead of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Higher income, please easier financing, have contributed to stronger sales, specially in private cars.
The first quarter of 2015, the PH automobile industry sold 62,882 units, breaking the 60k unit record for the first time.
I asked Subir Lohani, Managing Director of Carmudi PH what is their difference with OLX. Lohani said they only focus on automobile industry and they make sure that sellers on their site are legitimate. They double check sellers before they allow to post their goods in their site.
