Moninder Singh, Founder of Transport Mall Talks About His Views On Entering E-commerce

Q-1) Tell us about Transport Mall? How are you catering to the needs of commercial vehicle owners?

Trucks, buses, cabs, and 3-wheelers make up the majority of commercial vehicles in India. But at present, owners of any of these vehicles are not able to generate substantial income. They suffer from low margins and at Transport Mall we want to reverse this by bringing them economies of scale. We will achieve this by bringing the power of social media and technology to this sector. Transport Mall is India’s first full-stack, social commerce platform for commercial vehicle owners. 

Q-2) What makes Transport Mall unique when compared to its competitors? What are some of the USPs of the brand?

We own India’s biggest commercial vehicle news channel, generating over 25 million unique monthly visits. No other channel in the country comes close. Even though our major competitors are traditional sales channels such as insurance agents and brick-and-mortar retailers, what we have is the trust of the entire CVO community. Transport TV is considered this community’s representative and that is our biggest USP. 

Q-3) How does Transport Mall function as a social commerce platform? Please share your thoughts.

At Transport Mall we want to help the commercial vehicle ecosystem thrive by providing value for the owners of these vehicles first and thereby driving the way for commerce to happen automatically. We do this through the Transport TV and Transport helpline.

Through the video channel, we help bridge the information gap for CVOs and that automatically helps us get leads for our products. As for the helpline, it is India’s first helpline for CV owners. As a result, the sheer volume of people calling is immense. Our team advises them on different matters and helps them resolve problems. This again helps us become a trusted platform in their eyes and they come back to us for their business requirements. I believe these two systems have given birth to one of the healthiest forms of social commerce. 

Q-4) When can we expect the Transport Mall app to be available to the public?

The Transport Mall app has already launched on the Google Playstore and we’re already providing the TV, helpline, and other services in tandem with selling motor insurance on the platform. Very soon CVOs will also be able to buy a lot of consumables such as lubricants and auto parts. 

Q-5) How is Transport Mall's unique content via different mediums like the e-commerce platform and YouTube Channel making life easier for millions of CVOs?

Despite transportation being one of the core components of the country’s economy, there wasn’t even a single publication that served CVOs on a large scale. Transport Mall helped bridge that gap and how. We started providing CVOs with relevant content that helped them massively improve day-to-day functioning. We started writing on policy matters and changes in rules and regulations, news on operational issues such as freight delays, unloading of vehicles, wrong challans, non-payment of freight, disputes, and so on — all of which are extremely important for smooth day-to-day operations. 

Essentially, we are just helping them work and live better by providing highly relevant information and bringing issues to the front so that they can be empowered and build a strong community.                                                                                          

Q-6) What are your current growth and expansion plans?

In just two years of operation, we’ve become the second biggest player in the online CV insurance market in the country and our target is to reach the top position by 2024. Apart from insurance, we are bringing innovative insurance products along with our partner companies which are CVOs who are in dire need to secure their future. We also plan to facilitate sales of physical products and become the biggest online player in CV consumable sales by 2023 itself. 

Q-7) Anything else you would like to highlight?

This is one of the rare start-ups which has got millions of potential customers without burning a single penny of Investors. Secondly, we have more than 75% mind share of Targeted Group and further got a tool to keep a tab on their heartbeat all the time.Our Vision always is to build a solid business with strong fundamentals. Right now, 60% of Sales come from Repeat customers with Zero Customer Acquisition Cost