But right now they are still gathering information. Toyota has a pilot online sales program in the UK and Norway ahead of opening online sales "across a number of markets" within the next few years. Our retail partners are central to that relationship." "It's important we look after them through the ownership of what are increasingly high-tech cars. "The purchase is just the first part of the journey," he said. Matthew Harrison, head of sales and marketing at Toyota Europe, agrees. "You don't want to just drop off a vehicle and say goodbye," Ford's de Waard said. The online sales model that automakers are largely adopting calls for the internet order to be fulfilled by the dealer chosen by the customer, most likely the store that is nearest. We can't pretend everything we do is perfect," Stackmann said. "They are the face of the brand to the customer. The move to embrace online sales is not the same as a move to direct sales, automakers were keen to point out.
The dealer, however, remains a key element. They can't create a journey for a customer on their own," Stackmann said. "The dealers realize the future of customer connection is within our system, not within each dealer. It might be VW creating it, but it will be to the dealers' advantage. It has a total ecosystem advantage," Stackmann said. "This way everyone who needs to know, knows who he is and what he needs.
Not only will that enable online purchasing, but it means any interaction the customer has, be it servicing reminders or an email complaint to the dealer, will be recorded onto that customer ID.
The new system proposed by VW gives the customer an ID number to make themselves known to the entire VW dealer network and VW itself. Car buyers don't emerge until they send a link containing the details of their configured car to their nearest dealer. Right now a customer's online journey is largely invisible to VW. "In the future, we will try to avoid these break points," said Juergen Stackmann, head of sales, marketing and aftersales for the Volkswagen brand. Or in VW parlance, where the link is broken. Ford research in Europe shows that its customers visit a dealership just 1.2 times during the purchase process, with much of the decision-making informed by research done on the Internet.Īutomakers have long facilitated that by developing increasingly sophisticated online configurators, where customers can create a virtual version of their ideal car, while seeing how each change will affect the price.īut that's where it stops. "It will be the normal way of selling in 10 or 20 years, no question," said Marion David, product director at PSA's DS Automobiles brand.Ĭar buyers are already online. In the UK, Europe's second-largest market and the test country for many automakers' online sales programs, 60 percent of dealers say they will have the ability to offer online transactions within the next two years, according to a new study by Cox Automotive. Zhejiang Geely Holding subsidiary Lynk & CO, meanwhile, is promising to launch next year in Europe with a strategy that predominately relies on online sales.ĭealers are gearing up for the change. PSA Group CEO Carlos Tavares told investors in February that he wants online sales within the group to increase from 6,000 in 2018 to 100,000 by 2021.Īnd across Europe automakers such as Hyundai, Volvo, Alpine, Jaguar Land Rover, Mitsubishi, BMW, Dacia, Mini are operating online sales programs or pilot schemes in selected markets. With a new propulsion system comes a new mindset to purchase it.Īlso joining Ford is the Volkswagen brand, which is rolling out a new IT system to coincide with the launch of its new ID family of electric cars that incorporates online sales as part of a wider shakeup of its relationship with its dealers and customers. The springboard for Ford's rollout of an online ordering system will be next year's launch of its first stand-alone electric vehicle - the so-called "Mustang-inspired" battery-powered SUV.
It's all about not prescribing how you want your customers to behave," Roelant de Waard, Ford of Europe general manager of passenger vehicles, told Automotive News Europe. "We have to offer customers another way in. The shift to online sales, automakers say, is in response to customer demand. However, as technological change starts affecting not just the car but also what it means to "own" a car, automakers in Europe are slowly building the capability to move the whole car-buying process online. The absence of an Uber or Deliveroo for car buying means automakers haven't felt the pressure to substantially alter a model that is almost as old as the cars they sell. But while research into car buying has emphatically moved online, the actual car purchase has remained stubbornly linked to a physical dealership.
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