Consumer behaviour has been evolving with technological evolution; however, it witnessed a sea change in the COVID-stuck 2020 due to several offline marketing and in-showroom promotion constraints.
Eccentric Engine analysed and gathered insights from a sample of 100 million interactions deployed at select OEM online and offline touchpoints and over 5,000 respondents across Tier-1, 2 & 3 cities nationwide — presenting an interesting pattern of consumers moving their experiential research of cars online-enabled by technology and innovation.
Eccentric Engine, the firm behind leading data and vehicle visualisation platform ‘One 3D’, has revealed that over 7.6 million Indians chose to experience their next car’s features in 3D on the internet in 2020. This is more than a 300% growth in exploration than 2019.
In the trend survey, while predictably, 51% of the sessions are from six top-tier cities—New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore & Chennai, a surprise player that broke into the top ten cities was Lucknow which had 3% of the digital sessions. The trend seems to be spreading to smaller Tier-2 & 3 cities nationwide, with the Tier-3 accounting for 9% of total sessions between 2018 and 2020. Cities like Secunderabad, Udaipur and Imphal led the uptrend in 2020.
The survey found that while in 70% of sessions, Indians explored their next car on mobiles, 25% did so on desktops. Most Indian users researched online between 12 pm- 4 pm, with Wednesday being the most preferred day. Perked up by the festive season, such exploration also saw a jump during the months of November-December.
Non-resident Indians in other parts of the world make buying decisions for their family by exploring Indian make cars digitally for families back home. In 2020, out of the total 4.6% NRI sessions, 31% of the sessions originated from North America, which explored cars virtually on One 3D, followed by Middle East (32%), Europe (10%), the UK(5%), Australia ( 4%), Africa ( 2%) and Latin America (1%).
The data showed that Blue and White colours emerged as the top shades of new cars explored by more than 40% of Indian users, and 35% preferred Grey, Brown and Silver. Red, Black and Orange were chosen by 15%.
One 3D, the platform that aids digital exploration of cars, provides customers with an immersive digital experience of the vehicle and its features while sitting in the comfort of their home, office or any other location. It allows them to experience a 3D view of the car’s exteriors and interiors, try out different colour schemes, and explore different trims available. This is in sync with the larger global trend of car customers using digital first consumption of multimedia content and personalisation.
The consistency is reflected in the fact that as many as 91% of customers who purchased a car at a dealership after exploring it online (Online to Offline model - O2O) chose the same model at the dealership as the one they had explored online. This holds invaluable marketing and product insights for auto manufacturers.
“By intuitively integrating the real and digital world with One 3D we are excited to create an unprecedented level of customer engagement for our OEM partners to understand evolving consumer needs and help them serve their customers better by offering world-class product visualisation that can create surprise and delight and personalise their buying experience,” said Varun Shah, Co-Founder Eccentric Engine.
The Indian Automobile industry reported sales of 24,27,883 units in total in 2020 and was severely impacted due to pandemic. But with innovations in online promotions and marketing, virtual car exploration and doorstep deliveries, it is hoped that 2021 with nearly 50 launches planned, will be a game-changing year for Indian auto industry.
“With the adoption of solutions like Eccentric Engine’s One 3D, we are not only accentuating user experiences to the next level but supporting the automakers’ commitment to the health and safety concerns and responsiveness to changing trends”, Shah added.