Mahindra Launches Online Sales Platform amid Coronavirus Pandemic

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Friday said it has launched an integrated online platform that will provide end-to-end sales experience for prospective buyers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the new initiative -- Own-Online, a customer can finance, insure, exchange, accessorise and own a company vehicle, in four simple steps, from the comfort of their homes, the auto major said.

"With our pre and post purchase online solutions already in place, reimagining the car purchase experience was a logical next step for us," M&M CEO – Automotive Division Veejay Nakra said in a statement.

In the recent times, online has been a preferred purchase channel across categories and going forward, the online purchase of vehicles is set to gain more traction, he added.

"We are ready to lead this change in automotive retail by providing many industry-first experiences to our customers," Nakra noted.

Under the initiative, the customers can personalise their vehicles, instantly generate an exchange, get finance and insurance quotations and make booking payment, making the car ownership journey end-to-end and online in the true sense, the company said.

M&Ms pan-India network of over 270 dealers and 900 plus touchpoints is integrated with the Own-Online platform through back-end technology and process cohesion, it added.

Dealerships have upgraded their procedures and processes and are trained to minimise physical contact, it noted.

Besides, the company is also taking additional precautions across the customer interaction processes such as test drives, document collection and vehicle delivery to ensure high hygiene standards are maintained, it said. PTI MSS

Online Car Sales may Gain Traction Post COVID-19, Auto Retail Needs to become Virtual: EY

Post the COVID-19 crisis, online car sales are likely to gain traction as customers would lean further towards contactless modes of purchasing, according to a report by consultancy firm EY.

With the fear of infection and lack of hygiene likely to move people's preference back to personal mobility, which in turn is likely to reverse the trend of declining car sales, EY said automotive retail needs to become virtual, lean and flexible to align to the sudden accelerated change in consumer behaviour.

"Post the COVID-19 crisis, there is no denying that customers would lean further towards online and contactless modes of purchasing. Vehicles may very well fall in the same category too. While Indians are already more inclined towards researching online while buying cars, online sales are rare due to limited awareness, options and flexibility," the report said.

Citing a recent study conducted in China, which confirmed that fear of infection and lack of hygiene will move people's preference back to personal mobility, EY said, "One of the many fallouts of the COVID-19 crisis is likely to be people's proclivity to own and travel in a personal vehicle rather than use shared mobility or public transport."

"This is likely to reverse the trend of declining car sales. Consistent with this consumer sentiment, combined with better online experiences, we anticipate an uptick in online car sales," it added.

EY India Partner and Automotive Sector Leader Vinay Raghunath said, "In a post COVID-19 world, we do expect continued adherence to social distancing norms. The path to purchase will continue to be influenced by digital enablers with some customer segments preferring a virtual path from awareness to closure."

He further said, "A contactless purchase journey could be a win-win situation for customers, OEMs and dealers. Digital heavy processes offering flexibility in consumer connect supported by lean dealer operations is bound to become the new normal in the near future. Every player in the auto industry must invest ahead of the curve to keep pace with changing consumer dynamics."

Stating that this raises the question of how well-equipped original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and dealerships are in managing this sudden accelerated change in consumer behaviour, the report said, "Automotive retail needs to become virtual, lean and flexible, while the existing sales channels need to become more efficient to accommodate these changes...Now is the perfect time to have our contactless Invisible Salesman 'Anytime, Anywhere'."

The Indian customer's views and behaviour towards an online car purchase platform is only going to evolve. Indian OEMs and car aggregators can take a cue from global players and gradually develop their capabilities to support this transformation. Globally, OEMs like BMW, Peugeot, Hyundai and Volvo have successfully deployed almost contactless online sales, it added.

"However, despite the increased need for digitalization, the role of dealerships will not get diluted as some customers would still visit them for test drives or final purchase," the report said.

Dealerships will continue to connect OEMs with customers. An integrated "phygital" platform with a digitally-enabled agile salesforce will become a critical success criterion to tap into select consumer segments, according to EY.

"OEMs and dealers can plan their retail strategy in a phased manner for a seamless transformation. The invisible salesman can become a reality in India if all players in the automobile ecosystem work towards redefining the sector's retail journey. While for the customer, it will be yet another product that they can buy online anytime, anywhere," the report added. PTI RKL RKL

Auto Spare Parts Online Marketplace ‘boodmo.com’ Increases Capital by ₹ 15 Crores

Gurugram-based boodmo.com, which is among India’s fastest growing auto spare parts online marketplaces, has increased its capital by INR 15 Crores. With this fresh funding, the company’s capital now stands at INR 60 Crores. In 2019, boodmo had raised INR 18 Crores from undisclosed investors in two rounds of funding. The company, which has till date serviced over 1 lakh customers, will use the fresh funds to further strengthen its supply chain and operations.

A unit of Smart Parts Online Private Limited, boodmo.com was launched in 2015 by two Ukrainian entrepreneurs – Yevgen Sokolnikov and Oleksandr Danylenko. With over 1 million varieties of spare parts by 400 suppliers of over 3,000 Indian as well as international brands available on its e-store, the organization has a massive e-repository of genuine OEM and aftermarket spare parts. Boodmo currently has over 8 lakh customers in its registered database and about 1,000 orders are placed on the website every day.

The global automotive aftermarket industry was valued at USD 215.32 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 288.20 billion by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 3.7% during the forecast period.

Talking about the fresh funding, Mr Oleksandr Danylenko, Managing Director & Co-Founder, boodmo.com, said, “Although we have a robust supply chain mechanism already in place, we have seen a considerable increase in orders on our website in the last few months. Moreover, we have recently moved our Sorting Hub in Jaipur to a bigger place, spread over 15,000 sq.ft. area. We plan to use the additional capital in further strengthening our supply chain system as well as our operations."

Boodmo, which has 62 employees at its Corporate Office in Gurugram and an additional 55 employees across the Sorting Hubs in Delhi, Bengaluru and Jaipur, has recently become a part of ‘Great Places to Work’, which is a global authority on building, sustaining and recognizing high-trust, high-performance, culture at workplaces. 

Regarding this achievement, Mr Danylenko said, “In the e-commerce business, especially in a technical field such as automotive, acquiring and retaining the right talent is the key to success. At boodmo, we invest a lot of time and resources to train our employees and keep them updated on the latest industry trends. Since employees realize that there is a huge scope for continuous learning and growth when they work with us, their satisfaction reflects in their performance as well as our low attrition rate.”    

AutoTech Firm Truebil giving Car Buyers 'Money-back' offer Even after a Week of Buying A Car

From clothes, home décor to electronics, now trying out your dream car for a week, with the assurance of getting your money back is now a reality! Truebil, India's leading auto tech company has announced the launch of its money-back guarantee, a first of its kind offer. This will augment customer experience by providing flexibility and 100% assurance to buyers who are often sceptical while making heavy investments.

Under this offer, buyers will have a whole week to test-drive the car as part of their daily routines and see if it meets their needs. If for any reason, the buyer is not satisfied with the car, they will be able to get a full refund on their purchase amount. All they have to do is make sure the car is returned within 7 days from the date of purchase and has been driven under 200km. Additionally, they must ensure that none of the car parts have been damaged or replaced, i.e. they should be returned in the same condition that they were received in.

[caption id="attachment_134348" align="alignleft" width="298"] Shubh Bansal, CoFounder, TrueBil[/caption]

Speaking on the launch of the new offer, Shubh Bansal, Co-Founder, Truebil said, “Despite the sluggish growth in the automobile industry over the last few quarters, the used car market has continued to witness accelerated growth and is now booming. With the introduction of our first-of-its-kind money-back-guarantee, we aim to increase the transparency and credibility in our relationship with our customers to propel further growth. The offer will give our customers a unique opportunity to experience the cars first-hand for a week before their final decision. We believe that this move will help our customers to make better-informed decisions and encourage more people to choose our platform for a seamless buying experience.”

Currently a leading online retailer for used cars in India, Truebil has been able to effectively tap into consumer needs by leveraging cutting-edge technology for its service offerings. The company has been able to seamlessly integrate online to offline channels through its full-stack model, Truebil Direct. At present, it operates in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi with plans in place for further expansion, both within these cities as well across other parts of the country. With an array of unique services pertaining to used or pre-owned cars, Truebil is able to provide customers with flexible and innovative solutions that enhance their overall car buying and selling experience.

About Truebil:



Rapid technological adoption has been the backbone of Truebil's massive growth. Truebil, India's leading auto tech company has managed to achieve precious insights on rapidly changing consumer preferences and consequent increase in demand for used cars in recent years. The company leverages this information gathered to build state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms.

Following a seamlessly integrated online and offline model, Truebil has developed proprietary tech-enabled evaluation mechanisms such as Recommendation System for personalized user experience, TruePrice to predict the accurate selling price, Procurement Score to determine the right procurement price, and Dynamic Pricing to change the price based on a car's demand in the market.

TrueScore, Truebil’s super-efficient rating meter. The comprehensive measure gives the customer a fair idea of the condition of the used car. It takes into account several factors like the brand, age, price, mileage, history,etc.and provides a numeric index on the scale of 0-5. Every used car on sale on the Truebil site is given a rating between 0 and 5, which helps a customer to take the right decision. The higher the index, the better the car.

ETAutolytics Launched to Enable Auto Industry Leaders Make Data Driven Business Decisions

India’s largest news, views and information broadcaster on automotive and allied industries, The Economic Times Auto (ETAuto), has introduced ETAutolytics, a comprehensive business research tool that will empower automotive manufacturers, auto parts suppliers and auto dealers to make data driven business decisions in order to bring greater efficiency to their operations and maximise profitability of their enterprise.

ETAutolytics provides smartly curated, authenticated and easily searchable data, forecast, trend and highly implementable information and insights about the Indian automotive market and enables companies to save time and money by quickly accessing them before making business decisions instead of conducting independent market research or trying to find relevant and necessary facts and figures on their own.

“The idea of ETAutolytics germinated after frequent interactions with the industry leaders who felt though there were business analytics tools available for the auto industry, none of them had India specific data, information and insights and so was not catering to the needs of the Indian auto industry. With its sharp focus on the Indian automotive market, ETAutolytics seeks to fill this gap,” said Amit Kumar Gupta, Business Head, Economic Times Verticals (Digital).

“ETAutolytics aims to make lives of the auto industry executives easy by providing data, analytics and trends at one place at an ease of click which may take a lot of time otherwise. This will also help the industry executives make informed business decisions. Currently, we are unveiling the phase one of ETAutolytics which will evolve further in due course and will have more features and information," said Nabeel A Khan, Editor, ETAuto.

In the first phase, ETAutolytics’ key offerings include Vehicle Trends, Financial Stats, News and Forecast, Who Supplies Whom, and Competitor & Client Analysis.

ETAutolytics has been developed with consistence feedback from industry captains. During the last three months, the features were shown to over 100 top industry leaders and experts for their views on the offering.

Rama Shankar Pandey, MD, Hella India Lighting Ltd and Co-Chair, Consumer Affairs & Anti-Counterfeit Committee, ACMA, calling it “impressive”, said, “ETAutolytics is a good tool to make sense of various data points which are otherwise not available in public domain. In this era of Economy 4.0, which will be driven by data and digitisation, this kind of analytic tool will help the auto component industry to execute new business models with highly predictable ROI outcome.”