Olx redesigns app for a simpler, safer and social experience

The Olx app gets an overhaul with a simpler, social and safer user interface. The aim is to help deeper penetration of online classifieds across regions, age-groups and categories. The new changes, Olx claims, are rolled out on leveraging innovative technology and deep consumer understanding. The new app will make it mandatory for sellers and buyers to register online for accessing the platform. You can register using social channels or a phone number. With social media in place, you will also be able to see mutual friends. This is aimed at safety for users. The new OLX App has reduced the Ad posting time by more than 50% by introducing the image recognition technology. It 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. Further on the security front, the default settings of the new Olx 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. Olx has also added the hyper local experience to allow users to find great products in their vicinity. Amarjit Singh Batra, CEO, Olx India, “Consumer insights played a pivotal role in conceptualizing and introducing these changes. The annual Olx Consumer Research on Used Goods and Selling Trends (CRUST) for 2015-16, revealed that Indians are stocking unused goods worth INR 78,300 Crore. This, along with other consumer insights, pushed us to think about the unmet needs of the users and the new ways in which we could make selling and buying of unused goods simpler for them. We also looked at some of the broader challenges confronting the industry. 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 finds it hard to navigate around these. We decided to deal with the problem head-on by providing simple and tech-led solutions.” The new app will begin rolling out today for Android users, and in the coming weeks to the rest of its user base.