Carmudi Strategies on Nigeria AutoMarket Penetration

In less than three years it launched into the Nigerian auto market, Carmudi.com said it has made significant progress by creating secured, trusted and user-friendly platform for sellers and buyers to transact business.

Mr. Christian Keller, country managing director of ‎Carmudi.com disclosed this at the week when the Nigeria’s leading online auto market place visited and painted ‘BLUE’ United Berger Motor, Apapa in Lagos.

‎Keller told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that, aside the United Berger Motors, they have been working with other auto dealers associations and individual companies to bring their businesses online.

“The impact has been huge, I must tell you. Unlike when we started, many dealers are now eager to enlist their cars for sale on our site, whereas the buyers traffic has been tremendous too.

“Someone would think that the devaluation of the Naira will impact on the market, but we have seen people buying their dream cars. This shows that the market is working towards maturity where certain market forces don’t make people just change their minds.

“We are optimistic about the market and have been strategising especially in other cities aside Lagos, like Kano, Port Harcourt, Abuja and other areas with large car assemblies”. ‎

On the repainting of United Berger Motor, the home of used cars in West Africa, the Carmudi.com boss said they are moved by the interest of the sellers who have taken Carmudi.com as their strategic business partner.

Keller added that repainting the environment BLUE was significant, depicting acceptance of Carmudi.com by the people and a sense of solidarity to the market.

He added that efforts are on top gears to bring other markets in board, admitting that the critical issue in online business in Nigeria remains trust.

To Carmudi, he said, Trust is paramount hence they have developed means of verifying cars being enlisted on the platform, while partnering relevant agencies to mitigate against frauds.

United Berger Market also referred to as Africa’s largest automobile market for used cars has over 10,000 vehicles valued at several billions of Naira.

The market which was officially recognized in 1993 as one of Africa’s Largest used car market grew to become the largest in Africa.

The market presently has over 500 registered car dealerships and produces annual revenue of up to 3 billion naira according to reports.

There has also been a steady increase in automobile sales in Nigeria.

Reports showed a 300% increase of automobile sales between 2010 and 2013 in Nigeria thus creating a vibrant market for used cars.‎

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