British luxury car and SUV brands Jaguar and Land Rover today announced enhancement on efforts to drive vehicle retail in the current time of the coronavirus pandemic by pressing the use of online retail tools.

While the company is the latest luxury carmaker to have sharpened focus on digital retail in India after rivals Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz launched their own contactless initiatives in the recent few weeks for both sales and service, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) India tells that it was among the first ones to already come up with its online portals back in 2016.

JLR India had launched its online platforms – ‘findmeacar.in’ for Jaguar and ‘findmeasuv.in’ for Land Rover – respectively. The company says that it has now enhanced its offering by adding a comprehensive service suite on its websites.

According to Rohit Suri, president and managing director, JLR India, “At Jaguar Land Rover India, our aim has always been to offer a hassle-free and transparent purchase and service experience for our customers. With our enhanced and updated purchase and service portals, we are now able to offer the additional benefit of a contactless and safe environment in which our customers can fully enjoy the Jaguar Land Rover experience. ”

Online purchase: The two aforementioned independent retail platforms for Jaguar and Land Rover get enhanced features and navigation for ease of use. With the unique comparison feature, online chat and click-to-call tab, company says that existing and potential customers get to make informed decisions.

“When a customer decides to purchase a new car, they can choose to opt for a ready delivery vehicle or order one according to their requirement for delivery at a later date. Customers can also offer their existing vehicle for trade-in and get an estimated value if it meets the JLR India criteria,” said a company press release.

Book-a-service: Jaguar and Land Rover customers can also log on to 'jaguar.in' and 'landrover.in', respectively, to book their vehicle for service. The simple setup will allow customers to enter their vehicle details, select the type of service, a suitable date and time and retailer that is the most convenient. From there onwards, the customer will receive an e-mail from the retailer confirming the appointment and should the customer choose, can avail a contactless vehicle pickup and drop facility.

If so, and once the order of work is confirmed by the customer, he or she, from the comfort of their home will be updated about the work in progress through live photos and videos on the ‘Electronic Vehicle Health Check-up’ on their e-mail. On completion of work an e-invoice will be shared with the customer and the customer can pay from a variety of online payment options and would receive the car in the same contactless manner.

OEMs fast making the shift to online retail
Given the need to maintain social distancing and ensure safety amidst times of the ongoing health crisis, manufacturers across vehicle segments have been devising new SOPs and ways to bring customers back into the market by taking the much contemplated online route.

Be it with Hyundai Motor India, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Honda Cars India or Nissan India in the mass-market end of the spectrum, all the way to the German trio of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz selling luxury cars, automobile players are thinking out-of-the-box to revive demand in a lull market which has been one of the worst impacted globally given that the consumer sentiment to make discretionary purchases at a time of economic uncertainty is currently at its lowest.

While people will slowly get used to the new normal of buying and servicing their vehicles remotely, technology tools such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) will play a huge role in making the transition a worthy one.