Epidemic spawns contactless sales, can auto e-commerce take advantage of the trend?

The sudden arrival of the "black swan" isolated everyone at home, and business activities have been pressed the pause button. Of course, in the Internet as developed today, there is another way to do business, that is, e-commerce. During the epidemic, all walks of life have moved their trading scenes online, and the automobile industry is no exception, and auto e-commerce, which has always been in a supporting role, has also taken advantage of the situation to come to the forefront.

It is understood that the domestic mainstream brands almost all joined the ranks of the online car sales, have recently opened the online smart showroom, and continue to develop new "with goods" channels, consumers can directly order online, dealers can do all kinds of formalities and door-to-door delivery of cars. So, automotive e-commerce can gradually be accepted by the public, like cell phones and other industries to become a mainstream consumer channel?

Online car sales are red under the epidemic

The direct impact of the epidemic on car sales is that offline customer collection is suspended, but consumer demand is still there, this time there is a need for a different way to expand the customer, and the Internet online marketing has become the best means. For example, recently a portal's social small program online customer expansion activities, it has done a good job.

From offline to online, automobile manufacturers set customer activities did not stop because of the epidemic, because the customers are so many, competitors are making efforts, must be both here and there, so no one dares to relax. It is understood that the Dongfeng Nissan, Volvo, Toyota, Geely, Great Wall, Jetway, GAC Honda, FAW Pentium and other car companies, have launched an online car sales service covering the selection of the car, car purchase, car maintenance and other aspects of the car.

For example, on February 8, FAW Pentium joined hands with more than 200 dealerships across the network to formally unify the online business, responding to user needs 24 hours a day. Consumers can realize services such as VR car viewing, online consultation and even online car purchase through the online flagship store of each Pentium dealership. Chang'an Automobile has also launched the online car watching function, without leaving home, a cell phone, see all the models. Buying a car at home provides door-to-door car-buying services and handles all car-buying procedures for consumers; door-to-door car-calling provides car-buying customers with door-to-door car-calling services and disinfects new cars.

There's also GAC Toyota, which conducts online AR viewing through the Feng Yunxing APP, and also provides a full range of new car information through GAC Toyota's official website and other channels. If you are interested in buying, you can make a reservation directly through the APP, pay a deposit online, and the dealer can provide door-to-door pickup and delivery services, and disinfect the vehicle and other work.

Whether it is because of the cost pressure of "forced helplessness", or there are jujube no jujube to play a rod of "expediency", in short, during the epidemic period of the car companies online marketing in full swing. I believe that after this period of popularity, automobile manufacturers will also re-evaluate the value of automotive e-commerce.

Contradictory mood of car companies on e-commerce

In fact, automotive companies so that they can quickly start the e-commerce business, and the usual preparation is inseparable. In fact, automotive e-commerce business has not been absent in the car enterprises in the past few years, including the automotive home, easy car and other mainstream automotive media platforms have been pushing the online 4S store function, many car companies also have their own official website, and in the opening of the official account on various platforms, car dealers have digital marketing business, it can be said that in the "touch the network" this issue, automobile manufacturers have not always been the same. The automobile manufacturers have not been ambiguous on the issue of "reaching out to the Internet".

And, car companies have been actively involved in, in addition to similar "open store" mode, there are some enterprises to find net red live to sell cars, such as October 2019, Lei Jiayin endorsement of BaoWu automobile, a live broadcast of the cumulative number of viewers reached 4.59 million. There is also an e-commerce platform well-known anchor Wei Ya incarnation of the Great Wall Motor online "sales consultant", there are more than 2.3 million people online to watch Wei Ya sell cars, and sold 40 cars in 15 minutes.

And then there is the cooperation with various internet platforms at such an important point as "Double 11", including Taobao, Jingdong, Automobile House, E-Car, Jinduoduo, etc., which is a carnival every year. 2019 Bowo cooperated with the young Jinduoduo, and sold 500 cars in 5 minutes and 47 seconds, with a sales volume of more than 7500 million yuan. more than ten thousand yuan. At that time, Pinduoduo operated five brands of Changan CS75, Wuling Hongguang S3, Guanzhi 5S, MG ZS, BaoWo BX5/BX7/BX7TS***, and sold 2,700 new cars in less than half a day.

But from the manufacturers' point of view, has not been the e-commerce as a mainstream sales channel, but positioned as "an effective way to collect customers" and "a highly effective means of promotion", at best, "4S stores At best, it is a "powerful supplement to the 4S store model". Moreover, automotive e-commerce has always operated within the 4S store channel, rather than a new sales channel. Even for many brands, even the promotion is not considered, only defined as a marketing program, such as "double 11" huge traffic opportunities, to engage in some spike activities, to achieve the effect of eyeballs is enough. That's why you'll always see super low prices when you sell a car online, because it's not the norm.

The chain of interests behind the 4S store model

In fact, the promotion of e-commerce in the automotive industry can not be said to be not big, since the beginning of the wave of automotive e-commerce in 2015, a variety of automotive e-commerce model you sing me on the stage, but the traditional 4S store model has been very strong, on the e-commerce model has always been "to me as my master, for my use! "

Saying that the car is not a car, but a car is a car, the car is a car, the car is a car, the car is a car.

In the final analysis, this is determined by the characteristics of the automotive 4S store model. Auto 4S store mode, car dealers and manufacturers of the bundle is very deep, investment in a 4S store need to invest a huge amount of money, the need to build a store according to the manufacturer's standards, personnel training, sales model are unified by the manufacturer to carry out, and the 4S store also want to give the manufacturer a large sum of deposit for vehicles, parts and components and boutique inventory, it can be said that the 4S store mode is very favorable to the manufacturer. Of course, the dealers are also unprofitable, since they pay so much, the manufacturer has to ensure its monopoly in a certain interval.

In this closed system, both car manufacturers and dealers will not have the depth of participation in automotive e-commerce willingness, because we have seen ****, the development of e-commerce seriously impacted the physical store. At present, automobile manufacturers regard the e-commerce as a means of marketing and promotion, as well as the means of clearance of slow-selling cars, the general manufacturers are willing to cooperate with the depth of e-commerce, are 4S stores can not sell slow-selling cars.

However, the 4S store model is not indestructible, although manufacturers and sales dealers are willing to maintain the system, but the market is changing, even if the Internet companies can not y involved in automotive sales, but there is a monopoly on the trend of sales leads, and now the 4S store to get their own sales leads to the cost of the Internet is much higher than the Internet, and the effect is not good at the same time the Internet's offer makes the price system more and more transparent. The price system is becoming more and more transparent, not only in the sale of cars, and even decoration, maintenance, finance, insurance and used cars and other derivatives are becoming more and more transparent.

This makes it more and more difficult for 4S stores to make money, and the high operating costs of 4S stores have become a burden, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for both manufacturers and dealers to bear this high-cost model.

Currently, many of the new car-making forces have abandoned the 4S store model, and instead focus on network sales. In the case of Tesla, for example, to buy a car you need to go to the official website to make a purchase, i.e., to complete the operation of the purchase through the online method of car purchase, including deposit, final payment and so on.

Domestic Azure, Xiaopeng and other new domestic car-making forces have also basically copied this model.2019, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz's parent company) board member Bethge even claimed: it is expected that by 2025, Mercedes-Benz will have 25% of its global vehicle sales from online.

New retail model is the trend

Of course, the car has its own particularity, consumers have to test-drive the experience before buying a car, and after buying a car to do all kinds of formalities, it's impossible to be as convenient as FMCG and electronic products, so auto e-commerce is unlikely to eliminate the large number of brick-and-mortar stores, but it will deconstruct the automotive sales process again, breaking up the 4S store "front store, back factory "

By the way of the car sales process.

According to the current 4S store model, the entrance for consumers to buy a car is a 4S store, and the repair and maintenance should also go through a 4S store, so the 4S store can bundle all kinds of derivative business by selling cars. The automotive e-commerce model, the entrance is the e-commerce, and a variety of other professional services can be independent, including a variety of experience stores, delivery centers, repair and maintenance stores, automotive accessories stores, used car dealerships, and so on, and even finance and insurance can be third-party, so that none of the links can not be monopolized to provide consumers with a greater choice of options, the various segments of the full competition, the service and price will have more The first step is to make sure that you have a good deal of choice," he said.

This is the new retail model that everyone is exploring nowadays, that is, e-commerce based, independent of the 4S store's new channel.In 2018, Costco, a large volume supermarket in the U.S.*** counted more than 600,000 cars sold.Costco's model is similar to that of Jinduoduo and other online areas, that is, the shopping costs are lower, the price-performance ratio is balanced, and the complicated and complicated process of various types of car purchases has been greatly compressed.

In China, manufacturers are also consciously exploring new retail models, such as last year's establishment of the SAIC Rongwei Intelligent Plaza, set of high value, high-tech in one, marking the automotive industry's first new retail service system to achieve the scene of the landing, which is different from the 4S stores, but also different from the pure e-commerce, but the "on-line and off-line services and products integration It is different from 4S stores and pure e-commerce, but is a sales model of "integration of online and offline services and products", which has the biggest advantage over pure e-commerce and traditional offline retailing of reconstructing the triangular relationship of "people, goods, and the field", and breaks the boundaries of online and offline consumption scenarios.

With the advancement of technology, I believe that this new retail model of automotive e-commerce is expected to break through the automotive 4S stores as a fortress. Auto 4S stores, similar to the electronics industry in Zhongguancun, the logic of making money is "information asymmetry", and the Internet makes everything transparent, the advent of 5G and let the online sale of cars with technical support, VR and other virtual imaging technology allows people to have a sense of immersive in the Internet, online expansion of the customer with technical support, while the Internet popularization The degree of Internet penetration has been very high, and consumers are psychologically very receptive.

Together with the depth of Tesla, Azure, SAIC and other enterprises to try and promote, so even if the car e-commerce faces many pain points, but it is not without a chance

This article comes from the authors of the automotive home, does not represent the views of the automotive home position.