Buying a car on an e-commerce platform should not be simply attracted to the offer.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Zhongxin Jingwei” (ID: Jwview), the author Fu Yumei, authorized to reprint.
“Double 11” is approaching. In the downturn of the traditional automobile consumer market, many car companies have joined the e-commerce battlefield to prepare for the shopping festival. The reporter of Zhongxin Jingwei noticed that nowadays, e-commerce platform auto dealers including Jingdong, Taobao and Tmall have released different levels of concessions.
For the promotion of drainage, car companies are selling live cars on the e-commerce platform, half-price sales and other methods emerge in an endless stream. Is there a preferential welfare or a marketing gimmick? Which step has the car company embraced the e-commerce model?
“Golden September and Silver 10” has passed, year-end promotion is coming
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers data showed that in September, automobile production and sales were 2.209 million units and 2.271 million units respectively, up 11% and 16% respectively from the previous month, down 6.2% and 5.2% respectively from the same period of the previous year.
In September, the car entered the traditional “Golden September and Silver 10” sales season. From the completion of production and sales data in September this year, compared with last month, it showed a rebound trend. The year-on-year decline in sales also narrowed compared with last month, but the decline Still large, continuing the downward trend since July last year. In fact, China’s auto production and sales have been down for 15 consecutive months, and new energy vehicles have also fallen for three consecutive months.
Xu Haidong, assistant secretary-general of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, believes that the consumption power of China’s auto market is still in a state of deficiency.
This can also be seen in the three quarterly reports of the recent intensive disclosure by car companies. The data shows that in the 15 listed car companies that have released the third quarterly report, only three of the first three quarters of profit rose year-on-year, namely Jianghuai Automobile, FAW Xiali and BYD. However, looking at the profit indicators of the above three companies alone, only the BYD family made money.
A few days ago, the National Bureau of Statistics released the profit data report of industrial enterprises above designated size in the first three quarters. Among them, the profit of automobile manufacturing industry dropped significantly. From January to September, the total profit of automobile manufacturing industry fell by 16.6% to 373.46 billion yuan.
In addition, the sales target of major auto companies this year is not optimistic. According to statistics from Zhongxin Jingwei reporters, the average completion rate of new energy vehicle sales targets of six car companies, including BYD and Beiqi New Energy, is less than 50%.
The executive director of the Digital Economy Research Institute of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Pan Helin, Zhongxin Jingwei (micro-signal: jwview) said that if you want to boost sales to complete the annual target, each car company should actively adjust its marketing strategy and lay out online Multiple sales channels. In the “Golden September and Silver 10” utilityUnder the premise of not obvious, the “Double 11” activity has also become a node for the year-end promotion of car companies.
Car industry analyst Zhong Shi also said: “The pressure on the promotion of car companies at the end of this year is too large, the traditional market has been difficult to improve, they must adopt a variety of marketing methods, ‘double 11’ is also a Opportunity.”
Live selling cars, car e-commerce release potential?
Whether the traditional offline market-oriented car companies, how to prepare for the “double 11” on the e-commerce platform, will it be “unacceptable?” It is reported that with the recent live broadcast of new retail models represented by Li Jiaqi selling lipsticks, car companies have become one of the players.
From the recent live broadcasts of the “Double 11”, the car companies have achieved good results. “Sell 55 cars in 1 second” – this is the result of the sale of the “Shima X Tmall X Jiangling” special live broadcast. On October 22nd, Shirly Li Xinyu and the car self-media KOL Chedegang were broadcasted by the Taobao million fans in the live broadcast of Tmall. The main push was Jiangling Yi to EV3. The data shows that in the one and a half hours of live broadcast, more than 270,000 fans participated.
On October 16th, Baowo invited Lei Jiayin as the spokesperson, and joined hands with the network red man manual and Taobao popular anchor Chen Jie Kiki, and also broadcast live at the Baowo automobile production plant.
The data shows that during the two-and-a-half-hour live broadcast, the total number of visits to the live broadcast reached 4.59 million, and the online booking was 1,623, with direct sales reaching 220 million yuan.
▲Baowo car live broadcast report Source: Baowo car
It is reported that more than a dozen auto brands including Volvo have entered the live broadcast room before Tmall “Double 11”, and there are thousands of 4S stores and more than 2,000 shopping guides transformed into Taobao anchors.
Stop half price, deposit gift package, really discount?
In addition to the live broadcast, in the “Double 11” promotion, most of the domestic car dealers including Jingdong, Taobao, Tmall, etc. have launched a variety of car discounts.
Tmall cats, for example, mainly have the following three kinds of car stores, the first one is the car manufacturer Tmall flagship store, and the official flagship store of the car; the second is the third-party car platform or APP in Tmall’s flagship store. The third is the Tmall car flagship store.
Zhongxin Jingwei reporters found that when browsing the major e-commerce platforms,Promotional slogans such as “Stop a half-price car”, “1 yuan to 6000”, “new car 0 down payment” and so on.
However, how big is the discount? Take the so-called “half-price car purchase” as an example. In the recent promotion of vehicles, the Volvo S60L, which has a direct drop of 110,000 and is close to half price, has received much attention. It is reported that this model is equipped with a low T5 Zhijin advanced version, the current market discount is only about 50,000 yuan. In fact, there is only one half-price car involved in the spike activity.
In addition, the reporter of Zhongxin Jingwei also noticed that, like many products participating in the “Double 11” special, the car also adopts the “deposit” mode. As a large consumer goods, the amount of deposits is relatively high, ranging from 500 yuan to 5,000 yuan.
Among the many brand customer service consultations of Zhongxin Jingwei reporters, only a few brands said that the deposit can be refunded. The rest said that because the discounts and stocks have been locked, even if they do not participate in the preferential activities, the deposit cannot be refunded. This means that consumers still need to buy a car at the original price.
In addition, some consumers have reported that for the “Double 11” part of the business, there is an act of raising deposits and shrinking offers. Ms. Deng from Guangzhou told the reporter of Zhongxin Jingwei that she bought the car of Guangqi Honda Lingpai at the end of April this year, paid a deposit of 499 on the Tmall platform, and obtained a Tmall shopping card of 500 yuan. When she opened the car purchase interface recently, the deposit has become 999 yuan, and the gift package has become a 800 yuan shopping card and a “double 11” million luxury package.
▲The historical order and promotion interface screenshot Ms. Deng for the map
Customer service said that the relevant car purchase packages will be adjusted according to the monthly activities. The so-called “Double 11” gift will only be delivered in limited quantities.
Which car company embraces e-commerce, which step?
After the “double 11” promotion method, there is a tendency for car companies to embrace e-commerce. Which step has this model been developed to now? Zhang Xiang, an auto industry analyst, said that for car companies, the use of e-commerce platform for holiday promotion, whether it is live broadcast, price cuts, can play a role in boosting car sales to a certain extent. At present, it is only a preliminary stage, that is, most of the auto e-commerce transactions still need to be completed offline.
It is reported that the e-commerce purchase process is generally for consumers to look at the car online, set the time, handle the financial, and the payment of the final payment, contract signing and pick-up, maintenance and other services still need to go to the offline 4S shop.
A lot of consumers also said that they still tend toBuy a car offline. Ms. Deng said that she was choosing to pay the deposit online when the 4S shop was ready to sign the contract and recommended by the store staff. “It is equivalent to a free gift card of 500 yuan. Although it is stipulated to be consumed on a cooperative platform, it is still very cost-effective for users.”
“For me, the most important thing to buy a car is the experience. Can online shopping allow you to feel the space in the car? Can you test drive to see if there is enough power? So it is impossible to rely entirely on the line to judge.” Ms. Deng said.
Zhang Xiang said that when buying a car on an e-commerce platform, consumers should be careful not to be attracted by the offer. “Some car companies sell cars on the e-commerce platform are slow-moving cars or inventory cars. The online incentives are not necessarily bigger than the offline, or pay attention to distinguish.” He said.
“Car Enterprise ‘Double 11’ enters the e-commerce platform to sell cars, and it is always good to promote sales through multiple channels. However, there may not be an immediate effect, and the car companies cannot hope too high. As we all know, ‘Double 11’ is impossible. Leaving the price war. But for large and durable consumer goods like cars, customers may not be completely interested in the price. Besides, the current car price is relatively transparent, and the car is not much optimized. I am afraid that the space of ‘cheap’ is very limited. 4S shop, I am afraid the advantage is not obvious.” Pan and Lin said.
Pan and Lin still said that some concepts of “Double 11” are worth learning by car companies, such as diversion, promotion, etc., so that more target consumers know themselves and promote purchase behavior. The key to vibration sales.
Zhong Shi said that if the price of the sale is online, it will easily lead to confusion between dealers and the risk of price system collapse. The online competition space is relatively large, so the future is also a good exploration direction.
(The cover image is from Unsplash)