Pune’s Evolving Transportation Preferences

Pune is witnessing a change in transportation preferences. The city’s growing infrastructure and economic development have catalyzed demand for personal vehicles. A heightened demand for personal transportation has boosted the demand for flexible financing solutions.

A notable trend is the growing preference for car financing among youth and millennials. The average age of individuals opting for car financing is 34 years, reflecting a growing inclination towards personal vehicle ownership among young professionals and families. This demographic increasingly views cars as essential and safer means of travel, crucial for maintaining independence and efficiency in their daily commutes. Ambitious young consumers are reshaping the car market as they prioritize convenience, safety, and efficiency. They prefer purchasing pre-owned vehicles and view financing as a smarter, more accessible way to achieve car ownership. This reflects the aspirations of a young, dynamic generation striving for greater autonomy and an improved way of traveling as they continue to navigate the roads of Pune.

Popular Cars Financed in Pune

In Pune, the demand for reliable and practical vehicles is reflected in the popularity of models such as the Wagon-R, Swift, and Hyundai-GRAND I10. These cars are favored for their affordability, efficiency, and comprehensive features. 

Swift stands out with its sporty design and responsive handling, appealing particularly to younger demographics and first-time car buyers. Meanwhile, the HYUNDAI-GRAND I10 is recognized for its compact design and advanced connectivity features, making it a top choice for urban commuters. Customers in Pune are moving towards hatchbacks because of their affordability, fuel efficiency, and compact design, making them ideal for navigating Pune’s congested roads and tight parking spaces. Their versatility, ample cargo space, and advanced technological features appeal to a wide range of buyers, particularly young professionals and families. Their low maintenance costs and good resale value add to their attractiveness. These benefits collectively make hatchbacks the go-to choice for many in Pune, balancing cost-effectiveness with the convenience of personal vehicle ownership.

Gajendra Jangid, Co-Founder at CARS24, stated “The strong preference for car financing in Pune underscores a broader trend towards flexible and accessible car ownership. This shift reflects an evolving consumer behavior that prioritizes convenience and affordability in acquiring personal vehicles. Our focus is on enabling a seamless, reliable, and cost-effective car ownership journey for all “customers, supporting this transformation in the automotive landscape.”

59% of car buyers in Pune prefer getting their cars financed

CARS24 offers a variety of financing options designed to meet diverse needs, making car ownership more accessible and attainable. Featuring an average EMI of INR 12,000 over 60 months, and an average interest rate of 15.2%.

59% of people in Pune opt for financing their cars, reflecting the city’s growing aspiration of personal vehicle ownership. Nationwide 63% of people opt to get their cars financed. With versatile repayment options, CARS24 empowers buyers to tailor their financing according to their financial circumstances. Most loans are processed within a couple of hours, simplifying the car-buying process significantly. Nationwide, CARS24 receives around 620 loan applications daily.

By offering flexible repayment options and ensuring most loans are processed within a few hours, CARS24 significantly simplifies the car-buying process.

With a presence in over 180 cities across India, CARS24 is at the forefront of transforming car ownership in India. This commitment to innovation and customer-centric solutions underscores CARS24’s pivotal role in shaping the future of personal mobility in India.

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According to a report by Statista, Mobile commerce in India is projected to reach $46.4 billion in 2023. Mobile shopping is one of the growth drivers for this projection, and with this partnership, Shiprocket aims to enable merchants to grow in this burgeoning market by providing a seamless consumer experience. The partnership will unlock numerous benefits, emphasizing the commitment to enhancing user experience and enabling eCommerce merchants to do business easily.

1. Truecaller’s 1-Tap number-based OTP-less verification solution will expedite the onboarding process for new sellers on the Shiprocket platform, resulting in faster sign-ups and reduced friction
2. The 1-Tap, OTP-less verification will also help the merchants deliver a swift and secure online checkout experience for shoppers. This combined with Shiprocket Checkout will enable merchants to provide the ultimate ‘one-click’ checkout experience to their consumers which lifts up the sales conversion from 20% to 40%
3. Further to communicate in a trusted, safe, and productive manner, the partnership will enable Shiprocket’s merchant ecosystem to leverage Truecaller’s Verified Business Caller ID solution. This will enable merchants to foster a seamless communication experience with their customers, especially for important use cases such as delivery and support

Speaking on the partnership Saahil Goel, Co-founder & CEO, of Shiprocket said, “Our partnership with Truecaller ensures that speed and convenience are not just promises but a reality that the merchants can deliver to their consumers. Truecaller’s OTP-less verification combined with the Shiprocket Checkout solution will enable a seamless experience for the consumers. This will help our merchants further reduce cart abandonment rates and expand their consumer base among the mobile-first audiences. In addition to this, the merchant verification badges will also help build credibility and enable them to communicate with their consumers seamlessly.”

Priyam Bose, Global Head GTM & Developer Products, Truecaller, said, “At Truecaller, our commitment lies in empowering businesses in the realms of customer authentication to communicate in a trusted, safe, and consistent manner with their end consumers. With this key collaboration with Shiprocket, we are streamlining and elevating their merchant’s digital-led operations across the consumer experience lifecycle, from onboarding to checkout to communication through our business suite of products from the Truecaller platform.”

Shiprocket’s collaboration with Truecaller comes when the eCommerce industry is evolving rapidly, demanding innovative solutions to meet the changing needs of businesses and consumers alike. This partnership cements Shiprocket’s position as a leading eCommerce enablement platform, driving positive change and creating a more user-friendly environment for merchants.

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UNITED STATES: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 17 state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that the online retail giant is a monopolist that uses anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power. The lawsuit alleges that Amazon’s ongoing pattern of illegal conduct blocks competition, allowing it to wield monopoly power to inflate prices, degrade quality, and stifle innovation for consumers and businesses.

The complaint alleges that Amazon violates the law not because it is big, but because it engages in a course of exclusionary conduct that prevents current competitors from growing and new competitors from emerging. By stifling competition on price, product selection, and quality, and by preventing its current or future rivals from attracting a critical mass of shoppers and sellers, Amazon ensures that no current or future rival can threaten its dominance.

The FTC and its state partners say Amazon’s actions allow it to stop rivals and sellers from lowering prices, degrade quality for shoppers, overcharge sellers, stifle innovation, and prevent rivals from fairly competing against Amazon. Amazon’s far-reaching schemes impact hundreds of billions of dollars in retail sales every year, touch hundreds of thousands of products sold by businesses big and small, and affect over a hundred million shoppers.

“Our complaint lays out how Amazon has used a set of punitive and coercive tactics to unlawfully maintain its monopolies,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The complaint sets forth detailed allegations noting how Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while raising prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon to reach them. Today’s lawsuit seeks to hold Amazon to account for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise of free and fair competition.“

The FTC and states allege Amazon’s anticompetitive conduct occurs in two markets—the online superstore market that serves shoppers and the market for online marketplace services purchased by sellers. These tactics include anti-discounting measures that punish sellers and deter other online retailers from offering prices lower than Amazon, conditioning sellers’ ability to obtain “Prime” eligibility for their products on sellers using Amazon’s costly fulfillment service, and biasing Amazon’s search results to preference Amazon’s own products over ones that Amazon knows are of better quality.

“We’re bringing this case because Amazon’s illegal conduct has stifled competition across a huge swath of the online economy. Amazon is a monopolist that uses its power to hike prices on American shoppers and charge sky-high fees on hundreds of thousands of online sellers,” said John Newman, Deputy Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Seldom in the history of U.S. antitrust law has one case had the potential to do so much good for so many people.”

The FTC and states allege Amazon’s anticompetitive conduct occurs in two markets—the online superstore market that serves shoppers and the market for online marketplace services purchased by sellers. These tactics include:

• Anti-discounting measures punish sellers and deter other online retailers from offering prices lower than Amazon, keeping prices higher for products across the internet. For example, if Amazon discovers that a seller is offering lower-priced goods elsewhere, Amazon can bury discounting sellers so far down in Amazon’s search results that they become effectively invisible.
• Conditioning sellers’ ability to obtain “Prime” eligibility for their products—a virtual necessity for doing business on Amazon—on sellers using Amazon’s costly fulfillment service, which has made it substantially more expensive for sellers on Amazon to also offer their products on other platforms. This unlawful coercion has in turn limited competitors’ ability to effectively compete against Amazon.

Amazon’s illegal, exclusionary conduct makes it impossible for competitors to gain a foothold. With its amassed power across both the online superstore market and online marketplace services market, Amazon extracts enormous monopoly rents from everyone within its reach. This includes:

• Degrading the customer experience by replacing relevant, organic search results with paid advertisements—and deliberately increasing junk ads that worsen search quality and frustrate both shoppers seeking products and sellers who are promised a return on their advertising purchase.
• Biasing Amazon’s search results to preference Amazon’s own products over ones that Amazon knows are of better quality. 
• Charging costly fees on the hundreds of thousands of sellers that currently have no choice but to rely on Amazon to stay in business. These fees range from a monthly fee sellers must pay for each item sold, to advertising fees that have become virtually necessary for sellers to do business. Combined, all of these fees force many sellers to pay close to 50% of their total revenues to Amazon. These fees harm not only sellers but also shoppers, who pay increased prices for thousands of products sold on or off Amazon.  

The FTC, along with its state partners, is seeking a permanent injunction in federal court that would prohibit Amazon from engaging in its unlawful conduct and pry loose Amazon’s monopolistic control to restore competition. Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin joined the Commission’s lawsuit. The Commission vote to authorize staff to file for a permanent injunction and other equitable relief in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington was 3-0

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