Sobha Limited , a prominent real estate developer, after tasting success during Covid-19 induced lockdown, has now strengthened its digital capabilities to enhance sales.

“Despite all odds, we have clocked 86 per cent of the pre-Covid sales volume during Q2 FY2021 along with a marginal increase of one per cent in the total sales value as compared to Q2 of last year,” said J C Sharma, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Sobha Limited.

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“This was made possible due to our digital marketing efforts, good demand across all regions and our product offering, strong brand equity and unmatched delivery track records,” he added.

During the Covid lockdown and unlock phases, the company realised that there was consumer demand and started to focus on digital capabilities.

Digitally enabled business models

Covid-19 has impacted the sector in myriad ways, Sharma said and added “During these stressful times, customer experience has emerged as one of the most important trends in our business. Almost overnight, physical distancing and contactless interaction has become critical. People are demanding higher safety standards and are concerned about their productivity, efficiency, and connectedness with the world outside from the confines of their home. Creating digitally enabled business models have suddenly become the norm.”

“We at Sobha have been working towards building digital capabilities, even using Matterport 3D cameras to create almost real life-like virtual tours of our projects. This gives a high-quality experience to the customers who cannot or do not wish to do physical site visits,” explained Sharma.

Explaining further, he said “The idea is to create as far as possible personalised customer experiences that are relevant and useful. We are building such capabilities internally to fulfil this requirement across physical and digital realms.”

Talking about the year gone by Sharma said “The year 2020 has tested the world's resilience. The pandemic, its impact and the lockdowns adversely affected the real estate industry in India, too.”

“With some timely and laudable steps taken by the government, the situation is gradually moving towards normalcy in the past two quarters. Though more needs to be done quickly, we have started gaining in confidence,” he added.