The stoppage of sales of new cars due to forced weekend care spurred the largest dealer holdings to launch online car sales. The “transfer to the remote service for the acquisition of automobiles” was announced by the Rolf group of companies. And for sale in this mode, not only new cars are offered, but also used ones. If necessary, the dealer promises to arrange “contactless delivery.” FreshAuto, a specialist in used car sales, is also ready to provide customers with an online purchase. So far, this format will be available only from March 28 to April 5.
“In the context of the introduction of the“ spring break ”due to the threat of the spread of the coronavirus, we cannot remain indifferent and meet our customers. All you need to do is choose a car and make a call, ”the company’s press service said.
Chinese Chery also announced that its dealers on “weekends” will help customers purchase a car without leaving their home. On the official website of the brand, it is proposed to select and book a car in the desired configuration and color. Then the personal manager will contact the client and answer questions. If the purchase is planned with a car loan, then the promise is also approved through the online form.
“After completing the purchase procedure, we will disinfect the car and deliver it to a convenient place on a tow truck,”
– told “Gazeta.ru” in the press service of the company Chery.
AvtoSpetsTsentr Group has so far transferred only Porsche car dealership to remote sales, but the company refuses to consider this a full-fledged “online” one.
“As a rule, now online sales involve the following procedures: contacting a manager (by phone, mail or messenger), choosing a car, drawing up a contract, receiving signed scanned copies of a contract, sending an invoice by mail, paying an invoice, delivering a car. But this is not entirely online. The difference is that there is no one-click payment form on the site due to the fact that there are no acquiring agreements (up to 2% depending on the bank – “Gazeta.Ru”) between dealers and banks. It’s more like remote sales, ”said Anna Utkina, head of the press service of AvtoSpetsTsentr Group of Companies.
According to Utkina, the company is working on a similar scheme for other dealerships. The interlocutor of the publication notes that in fact no one has yet switched to full-fledged online sales.
There is no general scheme in which a car can be bought contactlessly, like a product on popular marketplaces.
“But now, by and large, this is little needed, unit sales, now it’s much more necessary to have a car service, but you can’t work there yet,” the representative of AvtoSpetsTsentra drew attention.
Car sales via the Internet are nothing more than a marketing ploy; they won’t give a large influx of customers, automobile expert Sergei Ifanov is convinced.
“Most often it’s interesting only to luxury car dealers. For example, a rich man wants to make an extravagant gift to his lady, and he orders a car for her in the same dealership where he bought his Bentley. This, by the way, is a real story. As for the mass, mid-price, and premium segments, the Russians are not yet ready to buy “in the dark.”
Come, touch, see for yourself – without this, people will not buy cars in Russia, and in the near future no virus will change it, ”the expert concluded.
And while in Russia, online car sales are unpopular, then in the rest of the world they are gradually gaining their share of traditional forms of buying cars. USA leads online car trading. So, the American company Carvana annually sells about 100 thousand cars through an online platform, which makes up 2% of the entire used car market in the USA. One of the “chips” of the process is the sale of machines through giant vending machines. Online car dealers are of great interest to investors, for example, startups Vroom and Shift raised the money of Goldman Sachs and BMW.
Daimler expects that by 2025, up to a quarter of all its global sales will take place on the Internet. In 2019, the head of the French concern PSA Peugeot Citroen, Carlos Tavares, announced to shareholders that he intends to achieve the sale of up to 100 thousand cars of the brand via the Internet by next year.
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