Eccentric Engine launches a virtual concierge for Nissan Magnite

Claims its the first such digital platform industry globally

Checking each detail of a newly launched car or SUV model from the comfort of your living room at the click of a mouse is now passé, thanks to 3D visualisation. But imagine moving a step further and being assi­sted by a sales manager virtu­ally, real time, and taking the purchase decision to its last leg! That’s the promise Ecce­ntric Engine’s Concierge is making.
 
With the virtual sales advisor, it is possible to not only check out the car from every possible angle, but also initiate the purchasing process, figuring out the resale value of the ex­i­sting model and even cho­osing the requisite finance op­tion. Concierge claims to be the first-of-its-kind digital platform with embedded native experience by any automotive company globally. The Mum­bai-based a technology incub­ator and a pioneer of automot­ive visualisation in India, la­­u­nched the solution for Nissan Magnite on Friday.
 
“This is the first 3D-enabled live commerce for the automotive industry in the world. We want to make it a norm for any car and even two-wheelers and commercial vehicle purchase,” Varun Shah, co-founder, Ecce­ntric, told Business Standard.
 
A car buying process inc­ludes 28 touch-points, of which 17-20 have been digitised by most carmakers. Processes su­ch as selecting financing opti­ons and related documentation will be digitalised in fut­ure, according to Deloitte’s latest Global State of Consumer Tracker survey.
 
The Concierge will allow Nissan users with real-time personalised product ex­pert interaction that provides information about the vehicle, ans­wer product and ownership-related queries, variant su­g­g­estions, financing and exchange value options, virtual test drives as well as booking the car online. The virtual sales manager’s concept is based on live commerce (a form of on­line shopping where customers can shop during live video stre­aming of events) is common in FMCG. It’s un­heard of in the automotive industry as automobiles are a highly emotive product that involves multiple layers of decision making, said Shah.
 
Though people explore cars online, the final purchase is made at the dealership. The time span when a person checks out a model online to when it is purchased ranges from 5-50 days. “That’s the bottleneck we are looking to add­ress. We want to crunch this to about 10 minutes,” said Shah, adding that the idea is to get an online sales assistant to help the potential buyer address all additional queries he might have after zeroing in on a mo­del. Rakesh Srivastava, man­aging director, Nissan Motor India, said the pandemic has challenged the traditional way of customer engagement.
 
How Concierge works
 
While browsing through the website of a car company, if a visitor appears to be very eng­aged while exploring a model — checking out a particular feature of the car, cha­nge the colour of the model a few times, the website senses there is a need for a live consultation and offers one with an expert.
 
The expert could be from the call centre or from the dealership. He/she is well-equi­p­ped and trained to field all ki­nds of queries. Nissan is the first firm to have used Conc­ierge. Other auto majors are likely to partner Eccentric Eng­ine for the same in the coming quarters, said Shah. Plans are afoot to partner carmakers outside India for it, he added.
 
Eccentric Engine counts Maruti Suzuki, Toyota Kirlo­skar, Citroen, Tata Motors, MG Motors among others as its partners, to which it is offering the 3D visualisation solution.