Godambee.com is emerging with innovative business technologies for micro-large sized businesses to reach and sell products to their consumers and Alibaba exporting commodities every minutes through online media and TATA housing sells an apartment every two days according to Brotin Banerjee (MD & CEO, TATA housing). Expects at least 45 per cent of its sales to come from these online platforms in 5 years.
Brotin Banerjee, MD & CEO, talks in an interview on how the online platform space is broking down the barrier between a buyer and seller.
Q&A
After the Google online festival, you tied up with snapdeal for selling/booking apartments of TATA value homes (a subsidiary of TATA housing, into affordable projects) online. What is the strategy, when you can sell your site as well?
Online platform is no longer limited to apparels, Gadgets and white goods. Consumers are even buying houses over internet. We are in the way real estate has been sold. We expect online to emerge as one of the fastest growing channels for real estate sales. Besides, we are aiming to create new and innovative ways to reach the target audience.
How many apartments have you been able to sell online till now? What is the largest for the next two years?
We started selling homes through our own website in December last year and piloted the online platform through our partnership with Google during the Google online sales festival around the same time. Since then we have had an over whelming response from across the globe. We have been selling one house every two days through this medium. We have sold over 700 units, with a value of at least rupees 400 crore. Looking at the growth in online platform and increasing the penetration of the internet, we expect at least 30 per cent of our sales coming through the online platform in three to five years.
Do you see yourself featuring in all online platforms in the near future or is it an exclusive arrangement with Snapdeal? Also do you think the online medium would grow faster? How big is the online market for real estate and how much growth are you expecting in this medium?
We’re witnessing a surge in Indian consumers buying online. The partnership with Snapdeal has been successful. While we have a long term association with them, we would continue to look at other innovative options to reach prospective consumers. Online is still emerging as a route for selling. The percentage growth would definitely be higher as compared to offline sales, as the base is negligible. According to a Google study, over the past four years in India, real estate transactions of $43 billion have been influenced by research done on the internet. The Indian consumer is opening up to buying products that were not traditionally sold online, such as real estate and cars. We strongly believe online would emerge in the near future as a preferred and sophisticated route for buying anything.
Are you seeing revival signs in the market, after the new government?
The industry is witnessing improvement due to the recovering economy, resulting in increase in enquiries. There is also stability in real estate prices over the last few quarters. Also, the market is witnessing the positive sentiment of a stable government at the centre. The stability in the market has resulted in buyers coming forward this festival season, in addition, the demand for affordable housing has picked up. We believe the economy should completely recover by the first quarter of next year.