E-commerce: Vintage cars, Harley Davidson bikes, costly jewellery find takers online

NEW DELHI: Solitaire earrings for Rs 3.5 crore. A special edition Volkswagen Passat signed by IPL team captains for Rs 30 lakh. A 1936 Austin Ruby vintage car for Rs 7 lakh. A Harley Davidson Night Rod motorcycle for Rs 15 lakh… These are all rare and expensive purchases. What makes them rarer is that they have all been made virtually, on Indian e-commerce websites, and it says a lot about how the mindset and habits of the Indian consumer shopping online is evolving.

ET asked 10 leading e-tailers for the most expensive sold by them till date. It’s a fascinating list that contains items of new technology (Led TV) and old vintage (car), spans a price range of Rs 26,000 (bar counter) to Rs 3.5 crore (earrings), includes the predictable (smartphone) and the eclectic (drum kit), and has buyers from not just the metros but also from Belgaum and Bulandshahar. “It’s trust and selection,” says Kunal Bahl, co-founder & CEO of Snapdeal.




Several patterns are evident: the bar for transaction size is being raised, even non-metro shoppers have the appetite to buy big, the market for rare items is growing, the basket of goods is expanding and more physical barriers are being broken.

Aditya Vij, a Delhi-based business collector of vintage cars, bought an Austin Ruby 1936 vintage for Rs 7 lakh on olx. “There’s no market place for vintage cars in India,” says Vij. “The traditional way was checking out with scrap dealers in old Delhi. The Austin was posted on olx by a seller in Meerut. You get to see the images, and the claims made by sellers online are more trustworthy than offline.”

Images and specs of solitaire earrings worth Rs 3.5 crore on jewellery site Carat-Lane were the first point of contact for a person in a metro who would go on to buy them. This person, whom the website declined to name for reasons of confidentiality, then contacted a customer representative in CaratLane and asked to see the earrings.

The company took them to the buyer’s house, and a deal was sealed. Payments for such expensive items are often made partly by credit card and partly by cheque, says Calvin John, vice president, marketing, CaratLane. This transaction invoked paperwork — an e-copy of PAN card and address proof — and rules that kick in for high-value transactions.

“For gold purchases above Rs 2 lakh, a PAN card is needed; for other kinds of jewellery, above Rs 5 lakh,” says John. CaratLane also gives a buyer the option to pay in cash, but charges a 1% fee to meet the government tax on cash transactions. What it does throw in along with such high-value items are gifts like wine, champagne, chocolates and customised stationery, the idea being to build relationships.

Astronomical as the Rs 3.5 crore purchase is, it is puny by developed world standards. The most expensive item sold online is in the US — a Gulfstream II jet for $4.9 million, in 2001 on eBay. The US has also seen a lunch with Warren Buffet, the iconic value investor, be auctioned online for $2.6 million and a round of golf with Tiger Woods for $425,000.

According to Forrester Research, 18 of the top 20 global luxury retailers had an e-commerce site, including Gucci, Prada and Tiffany. Also, it adds, 49% of American buyers of luxury goods used their mobile phones to make purchases.

In India, the transaction size is becoming bigger. According to John, CaratLane sold another pair of solitaire earrings for Rs 34 lakh last month. On eBay, about 1,200 television sets are sold every month. The most expensive product sold on Snapdeal is a Sony Bravia TV for Rs 3.75 lakh. “We have seen a 25% rise in average billing per order between January and October this year,” says Bahl of Snapdeal.

Bahl says six out of 10 orders on his site are placed by buyers from outside the big cities. “Many buyers of items like expensive watches (Rado, Rolex, Corum) and solitaires come from small towns, with no local stores to buy from,” says Abhay Gupta, founder-CEO, Luxury Connect, a luxury consultancy. “Traditionally, they went to large cities or overseas to shop for luxury items. Now, they can buy online and the trend is picking up among younger buyers (below 40 years of age) rather than older buyers.”

According to Nilesh Kulkarni, partner and head of luxury & lifestyle practices at AT Kearney, a consultancy, the inherent advantages of the online medium kick in for high-value purchases. “In most cases, buying expensive items online is a planned purchase — buyers know what they want,” he says. “Or in case of certified goods like solitaires (diamonds), buying online is transparent and gives access to a wider selection.”

Companies are also tailoring their services accordingly. For example, Carat-Lane uses its own trained staff, and not regular couriers, to transport goods. “Solitaires are planned purchases and selling jewellery is about relationship building,” says John. “Our sales boys are at least graduates and have complete product information (like the diamond cut, colour, clarity, weight).” And they are doing their bit to raise the bar for transaction size and expand the universe of what’s acceptable in e-tailing.