Maruti records sales of over 2 lakh cars since April 2019

Initiated around two years back, Maruti's online digital initiative now covers nearly 1000 dealerships across the country.

New Delhi: India's largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has said that the company has witnessed three times increase in digital enquiries and recorded sales of over 2 lakh units since April 2019. 

Maruti Suzuki India Limited has established India’s largest online sales network that is transforming customer’s online retail experience with enhanced convenience at the last mile. The online initiative helps customers get information from their preferred dealers quickly, MSI said in a statement.

Initiated around two years back, the online digital initiative now covers nearly 1000 dealerships across the country. According to a research done by Google over 72% of auto customers search for their dealers online. This simpler and transparent process clearly brings ease of decision making to the customers, Maruti said.

Maruti Suzuki started online bookings in 2017. As customer behaviour further shifts online, dealership’s websites are witnessing a much larger traffic flow, the company said. Maruti Suzuki has seen a 5-fold increase to around 20% of total sales. In the prevailing COVID-19 scenario, the digital enquiry contribution has further increased exceeding 33% during the last 5 months, it added.

“Nearly 95% of new car sales in India are digitally influenced as per the Google Auto Gear Shift India 2020 Report. Customers first research online and then buy at the physical dealerships. While online experience provides the complete spectrum of information to the customers, at the last mile the customers seek assurance of the deal from their trusted dealer advisors. Interestingly, customers who enquire through our digital channel end up purchasing a car within 10 days. This reaffirms that with a robust online to offline platform executed by a digitally enabled salesforce, converting digital enquiries into sales becomes easier. Since, the introduction of this new digital channel in 2018, we have witnessed three times increase in digital enquiries and recorded sales of over 2 lakh units since April 2019. This digital channel has helped to generate over 21 lakh customer enquiries,” Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki India Limited said.

“We witnessed a two-fold increase in ‘Near Me’ customer searches for Maruti Suzuki dealers. Our investment to create a hyper-local platform is to help customers discover faster and connect to their nearest dealers. This initiative has seen rapid growth in the recent times. In the last 2 years, we have integrated over 1000 dealerships across 3000 online touchpoints in this digital transformation journey,” he added.

The Company has built technology platform that helps the OEM and dealer websites drive synergy and strengthen localized messaging. For this, the Company has partnered with online platforms like Google and Facebook bringing global digital expertise to dealer teams. Building digital marketing capabilities at the dealer’s end, Maruti Suzuki consistently offers training to its dealer partners to upgrade their knowledge of the online platforms. These dedicated digital lead management teams have been trained through regular physical and virtual trainings on the finer nuances of managing the expectations of today’s digital savvy customer.