December 29: South Indian automobile dealer TVS & Sons are taking car sales to the next level, by having no cars in its showrooms at all.
TVS & Sons, instead will have TV screens and internet-enabled displays to see if customers would prefer choosing new cars this way.
The customers can check for brands through an internet-enabled display, and get the required information needed.
The sales person will still be present, but will take up a role as a product advisor, instead of trying to push the product. He will give customers a balanced perspective about the product than sales pitches.
Once a customer likes or prefers a model, a test drive will be arranged by providing a test drive vehicle at the customers home.
TVS is also considering negotiations with carmakers to decide how many brands TVS should deal with.
G Srinivasa Raghavan, the Global President and CEO of TVS & Sons said, “It’s about being relevant now. We live in a digital world where the buyer comes to the showroom after checking it out on websites, and, maybe after test-driving a buddy’s new buy. Why do we need to have six cars parked behind a glass door?”
TVS & Sons, run over 150 showrooms across India, and deals with automobile brands such as Renault, Mahindra & Mahindra and Ashok Leyland.
The company is looking forward to cut costs and boost profits by cutting down on land, building and people costs to re initialize a dealership business that is running on very low operating margin of around 2 percent.
