Aligning with customer preferences, Maruti Suzuki pioneered online bookings in 2017. As customer behaviour further shifts online, dealership’s websites are
witnessing a much larger traffic flow. The positive results of the initiatives are evident as digital enquiries for Maruti Suzuki have 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.
Speaking on the Digital initiatives, Mr. Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales),
Maruti Suzuki India Limited said, “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.”
He added, “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”
Supported by a strong technology backend and a data driven Hyperlocal marketing approach, the
new digital sales experience is personalized for one to one communication with millions of Maruti
Suzuki customers. The Company has built a state-of-the-art technology platform that helps the OEM
and dealer websites drive synergy and strengthen localized messaging. For this, the Company has
partnered with leading 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.