The world was moving towards complete digitalization. However, the COVID outbreak has significantly boosted the process, and now, the majority of the businesses are wrapping up their heads to devise an efficient digital transformation strategy. Digital transformation is nothing but leveraging digital technologies and platforms to build or upgrade an existing system. This system could be a business, an enterprise, an experience, or even a practice. Nevertheless, a solid digital transformation strategy will widen the target audience of your business and help you optimize your workflow by many folds. The overall goal of digital transformation is to simplify and import real-life processes into digital platforms. As the world embraces digital technologies and hardware that is compatible with these technologies, the scope for a wider audience is much higher than ever.
Way2Smile Solutions is one of the trademark-IT consulting companies that provide out-of-the-box and domain-specific digital transformation solutions, mobile app solutions, website development solutions, etc. During our venture, we happened to collaborate with a car supplier and management company that was looking to expand its customer base by leveraging digital technologies. This blog is all about the approach, the strategy, the technologies used- basically the ins and outs of the system.
The client’s background
The client is in the automobile sector. Their daily operations involve car parts supplier management and dealership management. The whole operation is time-sensitive, and to bring in a democracy inside the process, a tender or quoting system is being adopted.
The objective
The operations of the clients are complex by nature. There are two primary operations that need to be segregated and three different roles under them. The two primary operations being- auctioning and quoting tenders for the cars. The three roles are seller bidding, customer bidding, and dealer bidding. On top of this, the client has to check and verify the cars that are meant to be auctioned. All these processes take place within a time period, which makes the process even more difficult.
The approach
To bring all these functions under a single application would cause nothing but chaos. Honestly, the customers would be confused, which in turn results will result in poor customer engagement. So, we put the schematics under the microscope to distinguish these two operations’ demography. During our analysis, we found that the overlapping of the customers who opt for auctioning and those who opt for tender quoting is quite negligible.
The common audience between those two functions were negligible. As this percentage was too low, we came up with the idea to target these two different demographics with two different applications but operating under the same umbrella. Our approach was simple- a separate supplier application and a dealer application. This also allowed the client to target a wider audience as there are now two different applications. This was one of the most efficient car supplier management app strategies, given the conditions.
Our design approach
We focused on a minimalistic design to get rid of any complexities involved in the process. The application's user interface is direct and minimizes distractions of the users. Too much information inside the application will reduce user engagement, so we consciously made the decision to adopt a simplistic design approach.
Some of the must-have features for a car portal application
As more and more customers have adapted to the latest digital medium to buy automobiles. To capture the attention of the customers in the digital space, your only option is to provide more functionality in the platform. Some of the essential features that you should add to your car portal application are listed below.
Push notifications
The customer should be notified when a particular auction is going to take place. In the same way, suppliers should also be notified in case of any tender announcements. Getting these things started is the primary requirement for the companies. One of the most important factors to be successful in digital platforms is to grab and maintain the attention of the users.
Integrating with social media channels
Social media integration is a sure shot way to onboard users. One of the most important reasons why companies go for social media onboarding is because the platform acts as a potential marketing medium. It is most likely that the user’s connections would also be interested in your platform as they would most likely share the same social circle.
Make the payments more manageable.
To facilitate the payment channels for a more user-centric interface is the most practical solution to build an engaging car portal application. When it narrows down to payment options, customers tend to focus on two basic things- security and ease of access. Include popular payment options for your target customers. This will increase their chances of buying a product from your platform. Also, ensure the security measures to keep the payment channels safe!
The solution
Our solutions are comprised of 3 main parts.
- A strict backend solution
- A supplier management application
- A dealership management application
Stringent backend solution
In the instance we understood the client's operations, we decided the need for an efficient backend system to process and accumulate all the unorganized data. Firstly, there is a ton of data to be processed during the auctioning and the quoting operations. This data is crucial to run the operations as the credibility of the cars depend upon these data. Any corruption or mismanagement in this data could break the trust between the client’s operations and the customers. This data could be leveraged to identify customer patterns and key performing areas. It can also be used for predictive or prescriptive analytics to better understand customer behaviour.
A supplier management application
The suppliers from the market can participate in this tender process, and the ones that quote the least price will get the tender. This is much similar to what happens at the store, except it happens in an application. The core of the concept remains the same. Suppliers have the option to customize the quote and the service they provide. It helps them to stand out from the rest of the competitors without slacking in the customer service department. The data from this process is also stored in the backend server to ensure the safety and authenticity of the process. This data can be verified directly with the central database to cross-check any information.
A dealer management application
The core of this dealer management application is the bidding operations. Sellers have to register their products on the platform to proceed with the auction process. When a seller uploads the details of their product, they have to upload movies like the details regarding the product. These details will be verified from the client’s end. Once the product clears the verification process, interested parties can bid their prices. The party that quotes the highest price will get the product. This data will also be imported back to a central system that lets you access and organizes these data when needed.
Wrapping this up,
The simplified workflow has made the operations simpler, and there is a zero to a minimum window for an error to occur. Even if an error occurs, it can be traced back to its roots. As expected, customer engagement has increased by 6.2 times without draining too many resources. A digital strategy has also opened up new possibilities for the business. There is enough space for expansion or any up-gradation if needed.
