Reimagining the car showroom experience with a phygital product
Context
The digital innovation arm of TVS Motor set out to explore a B2B2C product that could modernise the traditional automobile showroom model. The ambition was to create a scalable digital layer that enhanced in-person sales for dealers across the world.
This required navigating a complex system: customers, sales staff, dealers, and regional markets — each with different incentives.
The challenge was not only to design a compelling phygital experience, but to identify a version that dealers would adopt, sustain operationally, and scale globally.
Disclaimer: My team was not affiliated to BMW. We worked with local dealers and used a BMW 520 as a POC model.
Understanding the real problem
Given the complexity of the product’s embedded context, I led the team to conduct field research to build the team’s knowledge of the problem space, and to identify opportunities for innovation.
We discovered that fragmentation in both the customer buying experience and the salesperson’s sales workflow caused gaps in customer experience and lost sales opportunities.
From here, we identified different opportunities around 3 critical and unique parts:
Experiencing the vehicle
Negotiating the deal
Post-showroom follow-up
Prototype-led product development
To manage complexity, I structured the exploration around separate hypotheses for each part of the journey.
I championed a prototype-heavy ideation process because it was effective in making tangible abstract ideas of spatial and social interactions. This allowed us to get quick and valuable feedback that accelerated product development while reducing investment risk.
Designing a phygital experience
I led the design of a digital layer that enhanced current interactions. For showrooms, we designed embodied interactions that allowed customers to move around the vehicle while dynamically accessing feature insights and digitally-augmented experiences.
Designing the sales engagement process
Recognising that the deal negotiation process is traditionally opaque, I introduced structured digital flows that mirrored trusted ecommerce experiences, increasing customer clarity and confidence during deal discussions.
These design choices positioned the solution as both a customer engagement tool and a sales enablement device, thereby enabling us to appeal to all stakeholders involved.
Pivoting towards commercial viability
While the experiential POC tested well with buyers, operational testing exposed structural constraints. Many dealers did not have organisational resources to digitise core workflows, and were reluctant to invest in improving CX as it was not central to their performance metrics.
To drive dealer adoption. I led a strategic pivot to prioritise components that:
Translated more directly into business metrics
Could be adopted without need for dealers to change backend processes
Could scale without additional hardware investment
This shifted the product from a tablet-led showroom solution to a lightweight, mobile-first platform with stronger CRM capabilities.
Outcome
With our pivot, we launched a mobile-first solution that reduced adoption barriers and improved scalability.
The product went live with national dealer networks in Indonesia and India, driving engagement increases of up to 5%.
