But they bought used ones saying the aim was staying fit," Chulet explained. "I have had friends who have bought used treadmills when they could have easily brought expensive new ones. While Indians have typically looked down on second-hand goods, Chulet believes attitudes are shifting as their purchases become more practical rather than status symbols. "Success in this model is more of an exception." The market leader is Flipkart, whose sales touched $1 billion this year, while Amazon entered India last June and is ramping up its presence among the 1.2 billion-strong population.ĭespite this, not all investors are convinced by India's e-commerce story, which is "about large volumes with expectations of profits in the long run," said Paras Adenwala, head of Mumbai-based Capital Portfolio Advisors. The firm is yet to turn a profit, and remains reluctant to charge customers, but Chulet is confident of the "long run" value of the firm in a country whose online retail market is exploding.Ĭraigslist, which started in the United States in 1996 before going global, has shown that such a business can make money, after maintaining profit margins at around 80 percent of its $166.5 million revenue this year.Į-merchandise retailing sales in India stood at $1.6 billion in 2013, according to analysts, who believe they will reach $14 billion by 2018. Quikr has also capitalised on India's cricket craze by turning sponsor of a team in the popular Indian Premier League.
#Craigslist cash cow for free
Quikr's marketing strategy has included a television and billboard advertising blitz, asking people to sell their used goods at their "MSP" - or maximum selling price - which they can calculate for free on Quikr's website. "And we are happy because we can handle more customers' calls with less staff."
#Craigslist cash cow drivers
Especially the low income groups like the drivers because the call from our side does not cost them anything," said Chulet. People who want to sell their goods on Quikr but lack Internet access can ring up the firm's call centre - or, rather, its "missed call centre" - where employees return calls to save the customer costs. So far, half a million have paid to be on Quikr, according to Chulet. Instead the Mumbai-based firm, present across 900 cities, gets its cash by tapping small businesses to advertise on the site.
#Craigslist cash cow Offline
He said that leaving customers to seal their deals offline keeps costs low and avoids regulatory hurdles - "I don't have warehouses or people running around making deliveries". That is partly where the word Quikr comes from," said Chulet. It was turned into the re-branded separate entity Quikr by Chulet and co-founder Jiby Thomas. The firm began life as Kijiji India, a subsidiary of US giant eBay.
Today, Chulet says, more than half of Quikr's 3.5 to four million goods listed at any one time find buyers within 90 days - a feat that has helped the firm to attract investments from top private equity firms such as Warburg Pincus. So I thought a platform like Craigslist for India would make sense," said Chulet.
And there are peculiarities, like we love to haggle. Like Craigslist, Quikr allows users to post ads for free and browse for furniture, apartments, pets and even potential spouses, before closing the deal offline - a system that chief executive and founder Pranay Chulet believes is well suited to India. Quikr, a start-up launched in 2008, has become the leading online classifieds portal in India, where the e-retail market is exploding thanks to a vast young population with growing Internet access.
An Indian answer to Craigslist is drawing millions of monthly visitors to its website, exchanging everything from used iPads to cows, in a country where second-hand goods have traditionally been sniffed at.
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