Leading automakers in the nation are pursuing increasingly digitisation throughout their processes in order to push sales at a time when potential clients should not so keen to bodily enterprise out to showrooms to make purchases.
Carmakers like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda, Kia, Toyota, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Mercedes-Benz have taken to digitalisation with renewed vigour as lockdowns and curfews grow to be the brand new regular amid the raging coronavirus pandemic.
“Digitalisation is the way forward. Given the unprecedented times, we have adopted a ‘Phygital’ approach for our sales initiatives at the dealerships. We have digitised 24 out of the 26 touchpoints involved in a car-purchase journey, except the test drive and delivery,” Maruti Suzuki India Executive Director Shashank Srivastava instructed PTI.
Digital contributes to greater than 40 % of the enquiries, he added.
Srivastava famous that the corporate has over 1,000 plus digital touch-points throughout India to help clients by way of their car-buying journey, from enquiry to reserving.
The nation’s main carmaker has partnered with main on-line platforms like Google and Facebook bringing international digital experience to vendor groups.
“We are utilising targeted social media marketing, insightful content creation and immersive AR-VR experiences efficiently and effectively,” Srivastava famous.
Mahindra & Mahindra CEO Automotive Division Veejay Nakra famous that the corporate is witnessing a major development in digital channel month on month.
“Looking at where we are today, the whole consumer journey is significantly going to shift into the digital world. Having said that, dealerships would continue to play an integral role, but the kind of role they would play is what would change,” he stated.
Similarly, Tata Motors (Passenger Vehicles Business Unit) Head-Marketing Vivek Srivatsa acknowledged that the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has understandably introduced lots of change in the shopping for and promoting sample of consumers.
“We, at Tata Motors, too have introduced a host of digitised interventions since the national lockdown of last year. We launched our e-commerce platform, Click To Drive to largely enable contactless end-to-end sales. We received a strong response throughout last year with noticeable spikes in interest as well as purchases, especially during the lockdown,” he stated.
Currently, greater than 40 % of the purchasers attain out to the automaker through digital channels, a major improve from earlier years, Srivatsa acknowledged.
South Korean carmakers Kia and Hyundai have additionally lined up digital initiatives.
“At Kia, online sales and staying connected digitally with our new-age customers have been a priority since the launch of our very first product Seltos in the Indian market. The current pandemic has led to faster adoption of online sales across categories. Our robust end-to-end digital sales process has helped us offer our customers a contactless and hassle-free car buying experience from the comfort of their homes,” Kia India Executive Director and Chief Sales & Business Strategy Officer Tae-Jin Park stated.
The firm’s dealership groups continuously stay in contact with potential clients to assist them navigate by way of the whole course of for a easy expertise, aiding them at each step in their buy journey, he stated.
Similarly, Hyundai Motor India AVPÂ New Business Strategy Brijesh Gubbi famous that the corporate is witnessing a shift the place superior digital modes of sales and retail are gaining foothold amongst patrons and clients are actually factoring in comfort to their buy journey, even for prime worth merchandise reminiscent of vehicles.
“We started following the digitisation trend from an early stage with a focus on solving problems and cater the human side of enterprise. Even before the pandemic, Hyundai was active on all digital channels with numerous initiatives such as ‘Click to Buy’ to support its customers,” he added.
Launched in January final 12 months, ‘Click to Buy’ is designed to facilitate end-to-end retail of Hyundai vehicles on-line.
Japanese automakers Honda and Toyota have additionally beefed up their digital play.
“With the emergence of Covid -19 pandemic last year, we have been single mindedly focusing on bolstering our digital initiatives for driving convenience and peace of mind of purchasing, owning and maintaining car from home, for our customers,” Honda Cars India Senior Vice President and Director – Marketing & Sales Rajesh Goel stated.
The firm is regularly constructing on its digital platforms like ‘Honda from Home’ & ‘Virtual Showroom’ to provide finish to finish automotive reserving, shopping for and possession expertise and options with greater than 80 % of the sales course of together with backend steps have been digitised, he added.
“Our digital platform has been designed to make it a simple, secure six step hassle free buying experience for our customers. We are enabling customers to digitally browse models via interactive 360-degree showcase for interior and exterior of our models, select their preferred dealership, request test drive, book or buy the car, and opt for home delivery of the car,” Goel famous.
The dealership workers are being extensively skilled to facilitate automotive buy at residence for patrons, he added.
Similarly, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Senior Vice President Naveen Soni famous that digital interfaces have grow to be the first medium of reaching out to clients in immediately’s time.
“A key takeaway from this pandemic has been the importance of a resilient distribution network. We believe that a mix of large, small and digital formats covering the traditional and emerging markets is the right way to move ahead in 2021,” he stated.
Digital interfaces, particularly, are right here to keep as they would be the pivot level to a fast revival into the “normal” and past, he added.
“The ease of use and customer’s growing trust on digital mediums even for a high value purchase like the automobile has vaulted the growth of this Covid inspired revolution,” Soni stated.
German luxurious carmaker Mercedes-Benz India MD and CEO Martin Schwenk stated the corporate has built-in all its vendor companions seamlessly into its e-commerce ecosystem which has resulted in ease of buy for the purchasers.
“We believe that buying a Mercedes should be as easy as buying food online for our customers and underlining this shift in customer mindset, we already have more than 15 per cent of our sales volumes in the first quarter of 2021 from online bookings,” he famous.
#mute
