Just as they’re about to revamp their dealership and sales process, JLR North America boss Joe Eberhardt sees virtual reality as a key component moving forward.
According to him, VR will probably prove most useful before a new vehicle actually arrives and is on display in showrooms, thus allowing potential customers to experience the interior and try out certain color combinations.
“We will have some virtual reality experiences in our dealerships,” said the JRL North America CEO. “I think that will be a big part of the showroom experience. It will never replace the real dealer experience, but it will have a big role, a very prominent role in the sales process going forward.”
JRL is currently busy converting their dealerships to their new “arch store” design that houses both brands, as well as developing a way to better connect online with their customers, as reported by Autonews.
The first store with the new design has already opened (pictured here), and is it Darien, Connecticut. Three others are set to be completed this year, in locations such as NY, Honolulu and Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Eberhardt explained that having both brands under the same roof will improve profits since it will allow JLR to “have complementary product portfolios where we can cross-sell between the brands, but also where we don’t have to develop a product for each need for each of the brands.”
“We can fill different needs with different brands, and we get a better throughput for the fixed operations, i.e., the service and parts department.”
At the moment, more than 100 JLR projects are in various stages of planning.
