This startup is helping Tier-II, III cities in online purchase of used two-wheelers amidst COVID-19

When a farmer from a village in Medak district in Telangana searched for a used bike on his phone, little did he know that his life would take a turn for the better.

CredR, an omnichannel consumer brand for buying and selling used two-wheelers, which had received the customer query at its Hyderabad call centre during the lockdown, decided to deliver the bike all the way to his village, which is 250 km away from Hyderabad.

“When he chanced upon our website while searching for used bikes, he got his son to pay the required Rs 399 without much hope of seeing a bike. But when he saw the bike on his doorstep in a matter of days, he was overjoyed,” Sasidhar Nandigam, Chief Strategy Officer of CredR, tells YourStory.

The bike has made life easy for the farmer who would often have to visit nearby towns to buy seeds and fertilisers.

The Medak farmer’s case is not an isolated one. There are many more people, especially from smaller towns and villages, who are warming up to shopping for used bikes online.

“This lockdown has completely changed our perception of what is possible or not. Who would have ever thought that customers from small towns and districts will come online to buy a used bike? But we are witnessing a new wave of online consumerism across all strata of society,” Sasidhar says.

[Watch the conversation between Sasidhar Nandigam, Chief Strategy Officer of CredR and Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory]

CredR has seen an upswing in demand from smaller towns, including Ghaziabad and Manesar in the north as a lot of people commute daily to the city for work and business. Because of the fear of travelling in public transport, most people are looking for low-cost private mobility.

The second-hand bike market in India is a very disorganised and fragmented one. Despite that interestingly, every year, approximately 20 million used two-wheelers get sold in India.

“That is primarily for two reasons,” says Sasidhar. “One, there is a big price arbitrage. So, if you are buying a one-year used two-wheeler compared to a new one there is a massive 40 percent to 50 percent difference. And the second reason being the Indian psyche that takes pride in owning things, especially a house and a vehicle,” he adds.

[Kondol, a customer of CredR from a town in Telangana, shares his experience of buying a bike from the startup]

CredR was started after Sasidhar’s frustrating personal experience of buying a used bike in Mumbai. “We have closely observed the second-hand bike market both from the buying side as well as from the selling side, and found that despite going through a harrowing time, people are still willing to put up with it,” he says.

Unorganised players are known to tamper bike meters, replace original spare parts with duplicate ones and also make fake promises to sell their goods. “Our main aim was to change this by providing a superior customer experience in the market. Buying a second-hand bike from CredR is as good as buying a new bike, the experience is almost the same,” adds Sasidhar.

Started in 2015, as an omnichannel consumer brand for buying and selling used two-wheelers, CredR aims to simplify the entire process of transacting in used two-wheelers. It operates a chain of its own branded retail showrooms across major cities like Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Jaipur, Kota, and Hyderabad through the franchise model.

Using its proprietary technology and full-stack vertically integrated business model, CredR hopes to revolutionise the entire customer experience. Besides this, it also provides six months warranty, paper transfer assistance, insurance, and assured buyback guarantee with each and every bike.

[Watch a customer from Manesar in Haryana talk about his experience of purchasing a bike from CredR]

The startup is funded by marquee investors, including Eight Road Ventures (Fidelity's proprietary investment arm), Omidyar Network, AngelList, K Ganesh (GrowthStory), and angel investors like Amit Agarwal (CEO, Amazon India), Rohit Bansal, Kunal Bahl, Sameer Sawhney, and Deb.

It has recently launched its online booking and contactless delivery features that allow customers to book their bikes online and receive home delivery of their chosen two-wheeler.

In 2017, India overtook China to become the largest two-wheeler market in the world. Among all the Indian cities, Delhi NCR sees the maximum number of registrations for new as well as used two-wheelers year-on-year.

According to Sasidhar, “Delhi-NCR alone is home to 25 percent of all CredR showrooms because of the massive demand in this region. We see a combined footfall of 10,000+ across these showrooms each month.” The startup’s maximum demand comes from cities and towns like Ghaziabad, Noida, Manesar, Palwal, Gurgaon, Shahdara, Uttam Nagar, Pitampura, and Bhajanpura.