OLX revamped app boasts safer and social user-experience

OLX, the consumer classifieds in India, has launched its revamped app to increase the penetration of online classifieds across regions, age groups, and categories. The company also launched a series of industry-first, tech-led changes with the new app.

The app has undergone a transformation from a design perspective. In line with its new-age experience, the App is more visual with an image first design.

The latest version of the app has already been rolled out to Android users, remaining users can expect the update in the coming weeks. The new OLX App is expected to fulfill the unmet consumer needs and bring about a new wave of growth for the brand.

The four major pillars for the new app include — Registered Users Only, Snap and Post, Chat First and Hyper Local Experience.

• Registered Users Only: With the intention of making the platform more secure, OLX has made it mandatory for all users – sellers and buyers – to register for accessing the platform. Mandatory registration will especially help in bringing women users to OLX by providing a safer environment for them to transact in.

• Snap and Post: The new OLX app has reduced the Ad posting time by more than 50 percent by introducing the image recognition technology that allows users to post an Ad in as less as 10 seconds. The image-recognition feature generates an auto-title and auto-category for the item being posted. All one needs to do is to take a photograph of the item, state the price, and it’s good to go.

• Chat First, Restrictions on Calling: The new app protects user privacy, making the platform safer. The default settings of the new app do not reveal the phone number of the seller. OLX Chat is the only way to get in touch with the sellers until they decide to reveal their phone number.

• Hyper Local Experience: The hyper-local experience has been introduced to allow users to find great products in their vicinity. This particularly helps facilitate transactions for low-value items in the under-penetrated categories for which it does not make sense to travel large distances.

Amarjit Singh Batra, CEO, OLX India, “Since online is still a very nascent industry in India, users do have trust and comfort issues. Women and the new-to-net population particularly find it hard to navigate around these. We decided to deal with this problem head-on by providing simple and tech-led solutions.”

The new app will facilitate further growth for these under-penetrated categories - musical instruments, sports equipment, collectibles, and vintage items. OLX expects to double its growth rate as a result of these changes in the next one year.