01 July 2018

Ford will join the growing number of brands offering online car buying this month when it starts a direct sales operation from its website.  The operation and systems have been set up by with the help of omni-channel auto retail specialist, Rockar.

Initially Ford is soft launching the project with a limited number of vehicles but the full range of cars with full customer configurability will come online later. Buyers will be able to arrange their trade-in through the Ford website when they choose their new car which will have a fixed monthly price.  Customers will then be offered the choice of having the car delivered or collecting it from a retailer, according to Ford Marketing director, Lisa Rankin.

Speaking exclusively to Auto Retail Agenda, Mrs. Rankin said: “The retailer will handle the last mile and there will be a handling fee. The online sales launch has been timed to coincide with the opening of Ford’s first direct sales outlet from within the Next shop in Manchester’s Arndale centre which is expected to open on 16 July.  The concession within Next, like the online sales business, has been set up by Rockar but is fully run by Ford as a direct sales business.  The showroom in Next will not be part of Trust Ford, the manufacturer’s own retail group.

“The aim for the Next site is to be an experiment for us. It is not a pre-cursor to wholesale change.  We have talked to the Ford Dealer Council about this and explained that it is a one-off to see how things go.  We have not set a deadline by when we will judge it, we aren’t even 100% sure how it is going to operate.  There are metrics that we will monitor such as footfall, leads, test drives and so forth.  We are under no illusion that it will be straightforward.”

UPDATE: As revealed by Auto Retail Agenda, Ford’s buy online process went live on 10 July here https://www.buy.ford.co.uk

Tags: Ford, Next, online sales, Rockar