"Post lockdown, we are witnessing 40% surge in e-booking": Sumit Garg, Luxury Ride

Luxury Ride is a multi-brand pre-owned luxury cars firm founded by Sumit Garg, Dhianu Das(a serial angel investor), Vikram Pannu and Vishal Pannu. Started in 2015, the company has set high benchmarks for its competitors and have given the entire industry a new normal and started with 3S services in mega showrooms. Recently announced to have Bollywood Pop-Star Sukhbir Singh as Brand Ambassdor. It has sold 1200+ luxury cars and serviced over 10,000 cars, since inception. Its pre-owned luxury car portfolio includes Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mini Cooper, and others. In an exclusive conversation with Sumit Garg Co-founder and Managing Director of Luxury Ride shares more details on growth trajectory for company. 

How would you assess the impact of COVID 19 on luxury segment? Did you see any visible impact on our business?

The pre-owned luxury car segment has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic in India. There was hardly any business in the month of April and May, it was no profit months for us. However post lockdownwe have successfully sold more than 60% of our inventory and soon we will be able to finish 100% of our stock which was purchased before pandemic.

We survived through June with decent business and the future looks promising. We have been experiencing heavy demand on the car servicing, detailing/sanitization and from the insurance front.

Kindly shed light on the professional journey of Luxury Ride? Also shed light on your current distribution?

The venture was Co-Founded by Sumit Garg and serial angle investor Dhianu Das back in March 2015. Luxury Ride is India’s fastest-growing and largest chain of pre-owned, multi-brand luxury car showrooms, offering end to end services from buying, selling, servicing, insurance, roadside assistance to car modification and more.  Luxury Ride is currently present across Delhi, Karnal, Ludhiana, Dehradun, Jaipur, Chandigarh, and Gurugram. Luxury Ride Karnal showroom is the India’s biggest, single location pre-owned car showroom spread over 1 acre land in a building of 4-floors, with display capacity of 50+ luxury cars.

Luxury Ride has a wide range of most premium luxury brands from Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Volvo, Jaguar, Lexus, Miniand Land Rover to Bentley and other exotic cars. Luxury Ride showrooms are a mix of company owned and franchise operations. The company has sold 1000+ cars, serviced 10,000+ cars and boasts of 4000+ customers. Luxury Ride has given the entire industry new normal and started with 3S service in mega showrooms, provides a 15-day money-back guarantee, premium financing options, best Insurance deals and buyback guarantee to ensure hassle-free experience for its customers.

Online is the favour of the season due to Coronavirus. How do you see the viability of online channel as far as luxury automobile retailing is concerned?

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a significant change in the perspective regarding transportation usage in the minds of consumers. The demand for personal mobility increased due to the customer’s need to ensure personal safety. We have getting 25-30 numbers of queries each day which is approx. 750-900 queries a month with a decent conversion rate. Before the lockdown phase we were getting 10%-15% of sale from E-booking and post lockdown we have seen tremendous hike in it which is 40% now and the pace which it is moving in we are hoping it to reach it to 60% of sale coming from online.Apart from sales of pre-owned luxury cars, our online channels are also equipped with seamless service booking, service billing, financing options etc. With all these options, we will integrate with our customers and this will even add value to our brand.

Business owners must use multiple platforms to gain their customers’ attention as well as trust & confidence, as the pandemic has put everyone’s future in question, and it is in the time of crisis that businesses could create awareness around brand reliability, post-sales services, and their risk-averseness.

What kind of demand you are witnessing in the post lockdown phase? When do you see market coming back to pre-covid timings? -

Even before the lockdown, the industry has been facing the headwinds due to slowing economy. But now if we see, the luxury car market is gearing up and there will be all together a different retail experience post-COVID-19. Online retailing of luxury cars is already at its surge and with the back of festive season, customers will bring some momentum in the market and we can expect sales to peak during the last quarter of 2020 in the luxury car market.

According to you, what would the challenges of luxury automobile retailing in the new normalcy? How do you plan to counter them?

During these unprecedented time, we will be working on our marketing strategies, a change in the business model and other approaches will be opted alternatively to support our customers. All our showrooms will be sanitised and all our staffs will be taking all precautionary steps to ensure safety at the showrooms. The focus is on the revival strategy by providing the online facilities, strategic partnerships, provide hassle free services to our customers.

We expanded our digital footprints during the lockdown and enabled a 360 degree online journey for a customer, starting from selecting a model of pre-owned car, applying the approval process of loan/insurance with a home delivery of a car anywhere in India and also extended our services to those cities where we don’t have physical presence. Through our online sales post lockdown the company have seen tremendous hike in its online sales which is 40% now and sooner we will cross 60% from online sales by the end of this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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