Jiji, an online marketplace in Nigeria, recently acquired Car45, an online car auction service, and rebranded it to Jiji Cars. In this interview, MAXIM MAKARCHUK, the chief operating officer of Jiji Cars tells AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE about the products and services Nigerians would be receiving from Jiji Cars going forward. Excerpts:
The recent buying of Car45 by Jiji and subsequent name change to Jiji Cars is a major step towards innovation in your operations. Tell us what Nigerians should expect from you?
Jiji started seven years ago with the mission to provide buyers and sellers, with a trusted and safe place to buy and sell goods and services. Now, over 12 million people visit Jiji every month. We believe that we are contributing to the economic development of Nigeria because we are fostering trade between people, and growing the GDP.
Jiji is a horizontal classified, meaning that it operates in all possible verticals including cars, real estate and property, electronics, and fashion, among others. Out of these categories, the car is one of the main verticals for Jiji. With the merger with Car45, we are going deep down in the value chain creation. What do I mean? Before Car45, Jiji participated in the car selling transaction only as a place where you can buy or sell cars? And we help business sellers to promote their services on Jiji. Right now, we are not just a place where you can buy or sell but taking care of you in the transaction part.
What should you expect? You can expect that now we have a place where you can sell the car safer and faster than before because we are taking care of the sales process. You can sell your car via the auction and with minimal involvement in the process.
What plans are you hoping to adopt that would separate you from your competitors?
First, there is no competitor in this market like another Car45. We compete with other ways of selling a car. Basically, any person who wants to sell a car has options. He goes to a dealer, drops the car, and waits till it gets sold, but it is the dealer that will take care of this. The other way to sell the car is to post it on Jiji but you have to deal with the process on your own, talking to the seller, etc.
In both cases, we are providing more value. For example, when you are coming to sell the car at the dealers’ location, you have only those customers who will come to this specific dealer but when you come to sell with us, you will have a bigger number of customers including dealers and consumers who are ready to buy your car.
The second option is to post the car and wait until somebody will be interested. Then, you have to take care of the negotiation with the buyer. You will have to book a meeting with the buyer, which may involve a lot of going back and forth, and you are not sure what to expect especially when you are selling a high-end vehicle. In our case, you can come to us and we will take care of the process, the negotiation with the buyer and find competitive offers for you.
The main difference is that now we are actually offering you the service when you can sell the car according to your needs. Jiji Cars can get the best deal for you according to your needs. If you need to close the deal fast or get the best offer, we are ready to provide you with more options depending on your needs.
One of our unique selling points is the inspection reports that we make for the cars. Our main goal is to provide buyers with an authentic and truthful inspection report
Tell us how Jiji Cars hopes to deploy technology in the seamless buying and selling of cars in Nigeria?
Technology is in every part of our processes. One of our unique selling points is the inspection reports that we make for the cars. Our main goal is to provide buyers with an authentic and truthful inspection report.
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Now, buyers will check 100 times before buying a car. What we are trying to achieve is to show that the inspection report has exactly the same description of the car’s condition that your mechanic will provide you. This is a technological process.
Secondly, we have two big segments of customers. We can sell a car either to dealers or to end customers. Dealers are the segment that is ready to buy cars fast. For them, we need to provide them with that technological infrastructure as well. The dealer needs to ensure that everything is transparent and secure and that his or her money is safe when the person is placing bids. As a dealer, you have to make sure that everything is understandable, easy and transparent. You can bid for a car, check the condition of the car and view the detailed inspection report, which is a part of the technology.
Dealers, who are our trusted partners, are buying our cars without physical inspection because they trust us. That is what we are trying to show to different players in the market our inspection reports can be used as a gold standard in the current market and you can actually refer to this inspection report like this car was checked by Jiji Cars. You are sure that you are getting what you expect. Our goal is to show you the reality so you can buy a car without hidden surprises. This is also part of the technology.
From another perspective, we need to ensure that for all of our sellers, it is easy to book an appointment, easy to understand how to sell a car, and how to come to our inspection centre. For example, when you want to sell a car, we will ask you to schedule the car inspection at a location of choice and described the documents that you need to bring.
We are trying to make the process of car selling transparent and easy for everybody on the market by ensuring that people receive top-notch customer service using a convenient process.
We also offer a remote inspection service to a person who wants to sell a car and will not have the time to come to the inspection centre. We will come to your place to inspect the car. We also ensure that you get paid the same day the car was sold.
Cyber fraud has been on the rise in Nigeria, how do you protect genuine buyers and sellers?
Whenever a seller of a car comes to our centre, we inspect the car, make an inspection report, and then go ahead to auction the car. This is to ensure there is no fraud. We check the vehicle documents to ensure we are dealing with a trusted and secure business partner. We also take care of the negotiations to prevent any incidence of fraud between the buyer and the seller. It is when there is a serious buyer that the seller can talk to the buyer directly. By doing this, we help both parties eliminate time-wasting and any possibility of fraud.
Jiji has well-developed ICT driven algorithms that can detect fraud. Basically, it uses data algorithms and we are getting better in fraud detection on our platform. By using artificial intelligence, we can better detect fraud adverts and send any suspicious advert to the moderation team.
Car45 has some offline outlets before it was acquired by Jiji, what are your plans for them going forward?
First, we have to update all of our offline locations. They will serve as Jiji Cars inspection centres. We understand that Car45 is a big name in the market which is why we did not want to change all of the locations overnight.
We want to show some gradual shift from Cars45 to Jiji Cars. So, we will gradually update our inspection centres. We have a strong Jiji brand in the car market, and for us, it makes more sense to maintain the brand as Jiji Cars. So, instead of having two brands, it will make more sense over the long run to have one strong brand and to strengthen this brand.
Are there plans in place to attract and sustain patronage?
Attracting and sustaining patronage is basically the idea behind the acquisition of Car45. We are expanding our operations from the sellers’ perspective. We have created the Jiji brand. I think it is more important to show people that they have this opportunity that they did not have before.
Again, we are trying to get more sellers. We are competing with the offline market. We are actually more dependent on macro-economic development, regardless of anything that is happening in the market on the global level. We just have to do our thing the right way, being truthful with our partners and our customers. We are committed to excellence, and to earn credibility in the market, you need time to get the trust of the market.
