Covid powers digital bookings for Royal Enfield bikes

Chennai-based Royal Enfield has seen a huge surge in digital bookings for its motorcycles after the launch of its ‘Royal Enfield App’ last August.

“Today, 50 percent of our enquiries are routed through digital platforms, up from around 20 percent earlier, and the conversion from digital enquiries has also doubled,” Shubhranshu Singh, Global Head of Marketing, told Autocar Professional. 

“The response from customers to our digital offerings has been overwhelming,” he added. While the RE App is intended to facilitate easy product discovery, purchase, ownership and after-sales-related attributes of the Royal Enfield portfolio, the ‘Make-it-Yours’ motorcycle personalisation platform has been “an even bigger enabler”. 

This has been especially evident in the Meteor 350 where over 90 percent of bookings “which are all digital” have come in through the MiY platform. The mobile app/website-based 3D configurator allows customers to access scores of personalisation options, including choice of colourways, trims and graphics.

It also offers them selection from a wide-ranging variety of apparels and accessories right from the time of booking their new motorcycle. Buyers get visibility of the delivery timeline of their motorcycle after placing their orders. 

Introduced last October, MiY is rolled into the RE App, company’s website and is also available at over 320 showrooms. Going forward, there are plans for a phased introduction at more than 2,000 outlets across India. According to Singh, the company has been quick to respond to the shift in consumer behaviour during the pandemic. 

While the “opportunities for digital existed in theory”, Covid has hastened this transition on a “never-seen-before” scale. “Last year, our focus was to bring more value and engagement to our customers across all levels of brand interaction,” he said.

The idea was to create an involved purchase and ownership experience that was seamless and hassle-free. “We introduced several digital initiatives that have only further fuelled customer interest in the brand and our products,” added Singh. Royal Enfield’s dealers are being constantly “sanitised” about the importance of a digital presence, platform usage and response management. 

As he explained, the company has “elevated the entire mid/lower-funnel consumer journey” to make it a seamless and convenient process. Special focus has been accorded to customer convenience with transactions now being completed from the comfort of homes rather than in showrooms. 

“We are not being complacent and will continue to invest heavily in digital across our product and service offerings as well as customer engagement,” reiterated Singh. The goal is to “continuously evolve” the present digital infrastructure to ensure that the experience is “in harmony with evolving customer needs.” 

With the second Covid wave distinctly weakening going by the reduced number of infections, Royal Enfield will be hoping that customer sentiment is back soon. Like other automakers, it could be looking at a more buoyant second quarter with the momentum firmly in place by Diwali.