'Eccentric' Auto Enthusiast The company is extending its presence to international markets and working on building the entire ecosystem making virtualization a reality for the industry
By Saptak Bardhan •
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Buying a new car has always been a highly 'physical' experience. For the last century, visiting a showroom was a quintessential step in purchasing a vehicle. However, it is possible to provide a virtual experience that is not only immersive, but also informative and decisive. Eccentric Engine is combining the best of human and virtual emotions that leverages all senses- vision, sound and speech- to make vehicle purchase convenient, quick and pleasant.
Existing dealership model with showrooms is not viable due to high costs of operations. This includes costs related to people, inventory and other overheads. Showrooms are slowly being converted to mere fulfilment centers. There is a common belief that OEMs would not invest in showrooms in the next three years. In this scenario, the entire purchase experience will be in the virtual world.
Varun Shah, co-founder, Eccentric Engine on how future vehicle purchase experience will be like, "The customer will go online to explore the cars you like thoroughly, in 3D and will be able to customize them to their liking. A sales consultant would join the, in the virtual world to assist you. If interested, the nearest fulfilment center will arrange a test drive for the customer at his/her doorstep while the signing and payments would all happen securely in the virtual world."
Eccentric Engine has streamlined the process of lead to booking. The process usually took 35 days while using the technology provided by the company, the same process is completed within 9 days leading to immense acceleration in sales. Another advantage of the technology is that showroom visits have significantly reduced which saves approximately four to five times of the resources used as well as time. Automotive Retail is unlike regular SaaS and needs a thorough understanding of underlying systems. A lot of these systems need to be upgraded in order for your platform to show its true impact. Eccentric Engine is vertically integrating to have a deep play in this space.
"We constantly invest in our core Graphics Technology. While there are a lot of possibilities, we have unlocked to transform virtual retail, it is focus on our core that keeps us ahead. We also contextualize our products heavily by working very closely and learning from all stakeholders in the ecosystem- OEMs, Dealers and Buyers," said Gaurav Rane, co-founder, Eccentric Engine.
The company is extending its presence to international markets and working on building the entire ecosystem making virtualization a reality for the industry.
"We have been profitable from Day 1. We don't think you necessarily need to be loss making if you are a tech company," said the co-founders in a joint statement.
