Car Auction Goes Online

More and more human activities are done online; it’s no wonder that conventional businesses also increasingly migrate to that realm. An example of this is how car auction can now be done online.

This digitalization is supported byinternet penetration in Indonesia. A survey by the Indonesian Internet Providers Association (APJII) in 2016 showed that 132.7 million out of 256.2 million Indonesians were already connected to the Internet.

Online auction is very similar to online shopping. Buyers and sellers do not have to meet face-to-face; they only need to do transactions in front of computer, tablet, or smartphone screens.

Nowadays, online auctions of various goods arequite common in trusted social media platforms. The one offering goods for auction will determine the starting price, and then bidders start to submit their bids that will continue to ascend until no participant is willing to bid further.

Now, what if the goods to be auctioned are secondhand cars? Our auction house, IBID-BalaiLelangSerasi—under PT SerasiAutoraya (SERA) and part of Astra group—provides a site that facilitates customers in finding cars through auction.

Our site does not only display some of the cars that are going to be put up in auction. It also provides schedule of auctions held in various cities including Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Banjarmasin, and Balikpapan, because IBID auction house already has branches in many cities in the country to bring itself closer to customers.

Auction might also be held fully online. If we want to join the online auction, we can check the special page at http://ibid.astra.co.id/online.

“We also hold fully-online auctions, only on the website. We will announce the dates, and we usually can sell 20-30 units in one auction,” IBID Auction House Chief Operation Officer Daddy DoxaManurung explained.

The sales figure of 20-30 units in one online auction shows the trust given by car-searching customers to IBID’s auction website, thanks to the transparent information provided on the site.

This information transparency, according to COO Daddy, is possible because every car put up in auction through IBID auction house has been appraised by IBID’s system-backed appraisal teams.

“Our homework is indeed to convince people to trust online auction. That’s why we work hard to prove that we are indeed trustable; if a car is graded A, it is truly of A-grade; if it’s graded B, then it is truly of B-grade,” COO Daddy DoxaManurung explained further.

The appraisal is carried out right after the car is registered to the auction. Appraisal staff will, using a tablet, input the results of appraisal of the car’s exterior, interior, and engine, including its electrical system.

The results are given in grades from A (the highest) to E (the lowest). The higher the grade, the better the condition of the car isand the less repair it will need.

IBID already has a good system running, but digital-wise, it will be improved even more next year.