After achieving double digit growth last year, automotive major BMW India has already seen 11 per cent growth in business in the first Quarter of the current fiscal. The brand has recently opened a new facility with their dealership partner Bird automative in Gurugram. With this new addition, the dealership identiy now represents BMW India with the total of 3 facilities in Gurugram and one MINI facility in Delhi. The newly-launched showroom will also feature virtual reality as an in-store experience. Retail4Growth speaks to Vikram Pahwa, President, BMW Group India, on the brand’s planning on dealership strengthening and in-store retail excellence.

Tell us about your retail presence right now and how do you want to take it ahead?

We are currently present in 31 cities through 50 sales outlets. By the end of 2019, we want to reach 40 cities through a total number of 50 outlets.

Automobile retail touch points globally are going through major make-over. Can you tell us about some disruptive store experience in this latest outlet. 

Spread over 4,622 sq. ft., the ultra-modern showroom will display up to 7 cars based upon the signature ‘Urban Street Display’ concept and sales lounges close to the display area. The dealership will also display original BMW Lifestyle Collection which includes a wide range of new clothing, accessories and luggage with sporty elegance and distinctive styling. Customers can also select BMW M Performance Accessories to enhance the motorsports DNA of theirs BMW cars.

This showroom will be the first one to feature virtual reality in order to add value to the whole BMW experience.

What kind of retail formats are you planning for emerging markets?

We had recently opened retail outlets through various dealership networks in various cities like Moradabad, Ranchi, Vizag and many more. A city which indicates growth in population of cars makes a promising market for us. Therefore we keep on strengthening our retail footprint in this markets. Also, we now have a unique retail format called mobile showroom that goes to 50 cities, over and above the cities that we are already present in. Mobile showroom formats displaying maximum number of two cars travels to a new destination, halts for a week or so and is meant to evoke maximum customer interactions. That way we are actually covering 80 cities a year. We would also like to  enrich this retail formats with further facilities and ensure that it covers more destinations.