Apollo Tyres has come with an innovative business model for selling tyres called ‘buy online, fit offline’. The customers need to visit an e-commerce portal and choose their tyres. Then the customers can book an appointment with the nearest Apollo Tyre dealer to get their tyres fitted.
With the increase in demand for tyres online amidst the pandemic, Apollo saw the potential in the market and thus launched its own online website to sell tyres. The online portal will list each tyre with all the necessary details like the tread pattern, aspect ratio, width and also have images of the tyres from various angles so that the customers can actually know about the product thoroughly. There is an option where you can input your vehicle model and the results will appear with tyres matching the OEM size as provided by the manufacturer. Currently, the service has already started in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kochi and Apollo is planning to spread the service to more cities.
After buying the tyres from the website, the customers need to book an appointment with the nearest Apollo Tyre dealer as per the convenience of the customer. Then, the customer would visit the dealer and get their tyres fitted and follow up with wheel alignment and balancing. Apollo believes that this online portal will help them reach more customers in both the two-wheeler and four-wheeler tyre market. The website will list all the features of the tyres and mention which tyres will best suit their vehicles. The portal also has a comparison tool which will help customers compare two products and decide on which one to buy.
Apollo has also set up a 24×7 call centre to guide customers to choose the best tyres as per their requirements. The tyre company also stated that they would be providing services like wheel-alignment and nitrogen filing free-of-cost for a limited period of time to the online customers. For the convenience of the customers, Apollo has enabled multiple payment modes like online, cash on delivery and EMI options as well.