The Coronavirus is impacting automobile sales and production globally, leaving automakers to look for new ways to increase, and meet demand. Virtual Showroom, a concept of bringing digitization to the physical Showroom, is enabling digital sales for companies. CNN News 18 got in touch with Massimo Prando, Managing Director, 3DEXCITE Asia, Dassault Sysèmes to discuss Virtual Showrooms in detail.
Prando explains that this time represents an excellent opportunity for the auto industry to transform:
“Industry needs to rethink their interactions with customers – how to engage with them & how to make sure customers get the right information on products, brands, opportunities, and deals.”
Virtual Showroom brings the full portfolio of any brand into one environment with an endless scope of variants. Providing this level of accessibility is physically impossible for a dealership to do under one roof. The most significant impact Prando sees is in the discovery phase of the customer journey. Interactivity & personalization help recreate the routine of what happens on a showroom floor. Better research online will save the customer time and effort. Will Virtual Showrooms replace physical ones? Massimo muses that there will always be a need for physical vehicles that can be test driven, touched and evaluated for the quality of its build.
“We will have to find the correct convergence where maybe there are some physical vehicles… but having the digital portion enables (customers) a completely different decision-making process on the customization they take home.”
Real-time 3D Enthusiast, based in Munich, Germany, over 20 years experience in IT and Digital Marketing. Member of the 3DEXCITE Digital Marketing team.