Not the COE road pricing system in Singapore but a Center Of Excellence for data intelligence in Malaysia!
How can South-east Asia’s used-car industry tap on digitalization to pivot in the pandemic era?
Using data science and intelligent automation – as one car e-commerce platform has shown the way forward.
With operations across Malaysia (HQ), Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, a firm called Carsome has set up a data Center Of Excellence (COE) to power its business at all stages while supporting strategic decision-making.
The combination of auction and market data, and machine learning (ML) model backs the firm’s proprietary vehicle pricing optimization and inventory support system. Technology also helps the company in understanding different user personas and their journey as a customer, thereby allowing for analytics-backed inventory acquisition and liquidation strategies.
Data-driven used-car operations
By tapping into years of past data, Carsome hopes to bring more value to various stakeholders.
For used-car dealers, the most apparent value comes from its ML-powered auction optimization, which provides personalized recommendations when users bid for cars. Dealers on the platform will find the most relevant cars curated and ready to bid on, even before they start browsing. This intuitive automation allows car dealers to make more bids that increase the likelihood of winning.
For consumers, the platform’s data-driven pricing engine helps to determine the best reserve pricing for those selling their cars through Carsome. Data can help them get the best selling price based on market movements and past bidding histories.
Internally, data powers the AL and ML functions to automate various operations such as car number plate masking and car-condition scoring; these reduce the time an inspector will take to certify a used car and therefore promote better efficiency internally while speeding up the administrative processes for consumers.
Said Carsome co-founder and Group CEO Eric Cheng: “By setting up our data COE, we are on full throttle in implementing data science solutions, along with data-driven insights to increase operational efficiency and achieve timely, evidence-based decision-making abilities to help customers get good quality services.”
