Toyota to sell spares online

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd will soon start selling spare parts online for its different models in India as part of a programme to enhance customer satisfaction, the company said on Tuesday.

The company, which has a total of one million customers in India, will start the pilot project of selling the spare parts online in Bengaluru this week and gradually expand to other metros by 2016.

''We have a total of one million customers in India and our primary aim is to make them satisfied and loyal. Our new initiative of making spare parts available online is aimed at making it easier for them,'' Toyota Kirloskar Motor vice-chairman and whole time director Shekar Viswanathan told PTI.

As part of the programme, the company is making over 400 frequently changed spare parts such as fan belts, oil filters and wipers along with 30 accessories available online. ''We are offering another platform, especially to those tech savvy ones who would like to fix small parts through a local workshop and not come all the way to an authorized service station but with genuine Toyota spare parts,'' he said.

The delivery model will be localised and when a customer purchases parts, the company's dealerships will take care of delivering them, he added.

Viswanathan said the available parts will be for all the models that TKM sells in India, including the once popular Qualis multi-purpose vehicle, although the company is no longer obliged to sell its parts under the law.

The other models that the company sells in India include Innova, Etios sedan and Etios Liva, among others. Expressing confidence that the initiative will be a success, he said, ''What we are doing is giving our dealers a chance to get closer to those customers, including those who are on the verge of moving away, and make them loyal.''

Depending on the outcome of the pilot in Bengaluru, he said ''we will expand in other metros in 2016. After that we will assess how we go forward on the basis of response in other metros''. He said the move will help the company in the long run ''as the first one million will get us the next one million if we make our customers really happy and loyal.''

TKM is a joint venture between Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation and India's Kirloskar group, in which the Japanese partner holds 89% and rest with the Indian entity.