Maruti Suzuki plans to convert its website into a vehicle finance platform

India’s largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki, aims to have 50% of its customers’ auto finance transactions executed on the company’s “Smart Finance” platform by next year.

Shashank Srivatsava, Executive Sales Director at Maruti Suzuki, said it would help the company transform its website into a one-stop channel for customers through which the customer can select the car, find dealers and arrange financing. , adding that there is a potential that 100%. 100 of its clients benefiting from financing do so through Smart Finance.

To date, the company has disbursed loans worth around Rs.6,500 crore on the platform to around 100,000 through the Smart Finance platform, which is 28% of all transactions of purchase of cars based on finance for the company.

Srivastava said vehicle financing is an area where customers have yet to leave the company’s existing digital platforms, but with the introduction of the new platform, the conversion of inquiries into sales should improve.

He said the company had witnessed a trend in which customers were comparing interest rates on third-party platforms. “It resulted in a loss of conversion rate for us because sometimes the customer would switch to another manufacturer. To stop that, we will be offering top-to-bottom financing options on our own website, ”he said.

The company was able to enroll 15 banks and NBFCs, including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Cholamandalam Finance, AU Small Finance Bank, Mahindra Finance, and Kotak Mahindra Prime, for the service.

Srivastava said that banks, while reluctant to make their product visible on the company’s platform initially, have now realized that being present on the website of the company’s largest website would give them more visibility and would increase the chances of acquiring customers while reducing costs. “The company has a conversion rate of around 12-13%, which means that alongside the buyer, a large number of potential buyers visit our website, which allows bakers to better market their product. product, ”he said.

As the government announced a lockdown last year to counter the pandemic, Maruti Suzuki decided to digitize its customer infrastructure as customers were reluctant to come to showrooms. “We were able to fully digitize 24 of the 26 stages of the car buying journey. For the financing, the client had to make repeated trips to get it, ”he said.

With 80% of cars in India purchased using finance options, Maruti Suzuki launched its “Smart Finance” online auto finance solution late last year amid growing demand for digital services. . Initially, the service was available to Nexa channel customers, accounting for around 20 percent of the company’s total sales. This was extended to all customers across India this year in July.

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