Carmakers turn to digital means to push sales amid COVID-19 pandemic

Carmakers in India are pursuing digitalization across their processes, amid COVID-19, to push sales at a time when prospective customers are not so willing to physically venture out to showrooms to make purchases.

According to PTI, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda, Kia, Toyota, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Mercedes-Benz have taken to digitalization with renewed vigour as lockdowns and curfews become the new normal amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

Shashank Srivastava, Maruti Suzuki India India Executive Director, said digitalization is the way forward. “Given the unprecedented times, we have adopted a “Phygital” approach for our sales initiatives at the dealerships. We have digitalized 24 out of the 26 touch points involved in a car-purchase journey, except the test drive and delivery.”

He noted that the company has over 1,000 plus digital touch points across India to assist customers through their car buying journey from enquiry booking. “We are utilizing targeted social media marketing, insightful content creation and immersive AR-VR experiences efficiently and effectively.”

Veejay Nakra, Mahindra & Mahindra CEO – Automotive Division, noted that the company is witnessing a significant growth 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.”

Vivek Srivatsa, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Business Unit Head Marketing, said the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has understandably brought a lot of change in the buying and selling pattern of customers. “We at Tata Motors, too have introduced a host of digitized 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.”

Tae-Jin Park, Kia India Executive Director and Chief Sales & Business Strategy Officer, said that  at Kia, online sales and staying connected digitally with their new-age customers have been a priority since the launch of Seltos in the Indian market. “The current pandemic has led to a 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.”

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Kia’s dealership teams constantly remain in touch with prospective customers to help them navigate through the entire process for a smooth experience, assisting them at every step in their purchase journey.

Not to be left behind, Rajesh Goel, Honda Cars India Senior Vice President and Director Marketing & Sales, said they are continually building on the digital platforms like “Honda from Home” and “Virtual Showroom” to offer end to end car booking, buying and ownership experience and solutions with more than 80% of the sales process including backend steps have been digitized.

“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.”