MAM
Now one can buy a car completely online via CARS24
Mumbai: E-commerce platform for pre-owned vehicles CARS24 wants to disrupt the business, to simplify and transform used car purchases, and has made the entire sale and delivery process online. In a first for the Indian pre-owned automobiles industry, CARS24 will offer home delivery; a six-months warranty and a no-questions-asked seven-day return policy, just like you would experience while buying say a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) product online.
The brand aims to lead the fully online drive and usher in a ‘clicks over bricks’ culture in India that encourages consumers to bear hug the simple convenience of buying their next car, prescheduled to arrive at their doorstep, sans a single paper transaction.
The used-cars app says it has an assortment of over 10,000 cars sale ready so buyers are faced with a wide selection of cars while seeking to find the exact model in the right condition and colour they want, rather than settle for a sub-optimal choice. Transparent pricing and a technology enabled catalogue allows buyers to quickly browse through thousands of cars and make the choice that suits them most.
CARS24 owns and fully reconditions thousands of quality used cars at its state-of-the-art workshop to ensure the cars are as good as new before offering them for sale. It is also investing heavily in technology based refurbishment centres in order to provide customers with good quality cars. In 2021, the brand will set up seven refurbishment facilities across 50 acres land in top Indian metro cities. Around 20,000 cars per month will be refurbished at these facilities allowing the brand to fulfil its promise of delivering the highest quality customer experience and satisfaction.
Commenting on the new proposition CARS24 co-founder & CEO Vikram Chopra said, “The widely accepted process of buying a car is outdated, tedious and tiresome, and definitely not fit for today’s consumers. The future of car buying is entirely online as it allows the buyers to buy what they like; and what they like is what they get on CARS24. To close the trust gap, we now equip our consumers with a no questions asked 7-day return on the car. Our customers love the proposition and hence, our online sales are growing rapidly. We look forward to continuing our mission of delivering the best car buying experience for consumers by providing better selection, quality, transparency, convenience and peace of mind making it no different to buying any other product online today.”
Over the past few months, CARS24 extensively used technology to revolutionise the way customers shop for cars. It has made huge investments for cataloguing cars to allowing the customer to make an informed decision to buy. Buyers may now inspect high quality, 360-degree images from the comfort of their home while simultaneously enjoying an immersive experience, just like a test drive. As part of this investment, 20 car studios across 10+ locations in the country are operationally cataloguing 400 cars a day, the brand said.
A customer centric policy at its core, CARS24 will ensure each car listed on the platform for sale has already passed 140 points of inspection; and no car unable to clear these stringent quality tests is listed. For prospective buyers of pre-owned cars, the company has also simplified the financing process by providing customised financing options; which again is fully contactless with video KYC and near real time processing of loans.
CARS24 is pioneering the shift to online car buying in India. Since the launch of the new business model, the brand claims to have sold more than 5000 cars to date.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
