MyTukar sees higher used car take-ups by end-2020

KUALA LUMPUR: The demand for used cars are shifting into higher gear as the sector continue seeing recovery since Movement Control Order (MCO) which came in effect in March this year.

MyTukar Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Fong Hon Sum said upon resuming operation in the month of May, the used car platform have seen a shift in consumer purchasing behaviour.

“The used car market has recovered almost immediately after MCO ended.

“As a result, we have observed a V-shape recovery in our sales volume within a month post-MCO. Between May to September 2020, we recorded a huge growth of more than 400 per cent,” he told The New Straits Times.

He said based on a market study conducted by the company with its authorized dealers on MyTukar platform, it is expected that the momentum for used car market will continue to grow.

However, he said the current used car sales volume does not reflect the actual used car market demand due to the shortage in supply.

“The shortage is mainly due to the disruption in the chain of production of new vehicles, for example, the waiting list up to 6 months for some makes and models, and customers that intend to sell their existing cars being delayed, thus impacting the whole supply of used cars into the market,” he said.

Fong pointed out that the used car push and pull factors is mainly rely on the market sentiment.

“But what we can observe and confirm is the upward trend that we have seen in the past few months, based on our dealer purchasing activities on our platform and the high conversion rate that we are experiencing compared to 2019.

“Additionally, our authorized dealer network has grown by 5 per cent since May,” he said.

Commenting on MyTukar’s recent partnership with Sime Darby Auto Selection (SDAS), Fong said the partnership happened because both MyTukar and SDAS have similar objectives to enhance the used car purchasing experience for customers.

“We are happy to have found in SDAS a compatible partner who shares the same values and we are open for more like-minded businesses that would like to partner up with us to further develop and drive digital innovation in the used car ecosystem in Malaysia together,” he said.

To recap, MyTukar early this month, inked a partnership with SDAS, the pre-owned car division Sime Darby Motors. Through MyTukar, SDAS will expand its network nationwide, enabling access to a wider procurement grid that would present more choices to SDAS customers.

Further, the deal will also give it access to an online used car transaction database which would provide transparency and improved accuracy on actual market transactions.

Prior to SDAS partnership, MyTukar teamed up with CapBay, a supply chain financing and peer-to-peer (P2P) platform to offer an integrated one-click financing programme for used car dealers in the country.

“The partnership we have in Capbay is not just about providing liquidity for our authorized used car dealers (buyers).

“More importantly, the partnership has helped designed a product that fit the business process of Malaysian used car dealers by innovating the financial product to provide a seamless cash-less purchasing experience for our dealers.

“We have many success stories from our authorized used car dealers within our ecosystem. One of our buyers have successfully grown their monthly sales volume from 50 to 300 units within a matter of months,” Fong said.

MyTukar started in the late 2017 and became Malaysia’s fastest growing used car trading platform, having grown from 10 employees to 300 employees today.

“Besides talents, we are also investing into research and development (R&D) to further strengthen our position as the market leader in the business-to-business (B2B) used car segment through technological advancement and developing tools to enhance residual values for used cars,” he said.

Source: NST