30 November 2015

News that BMW is to roll out a new online purchasing experience shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the way Internet shopping is evolving. Although more a case of not if but when, it’s interesting to note that it’s a genuine one-stop-shop approach; from car configuration to finance and arranging the eventual handover, you can do it all from home.

Where does this leave the auto retailer, though? Look closely at the detail of BMW’s new operation and you’ll see comforting references to the part the retailer plays – so far, test drives and handovers have yet to be hijacked by the Internet – but the potential to be viewed as little more than a ‘Click and Collect’ store is real.

And while this might work fine for high street retailers selling white goods and furniture, the need to add value to the purchasing experience is crucial when you’re dealing with a high value, long term ownership proposition. With shopper loyalty being replaced by a ‘he who sells it the cheapest wins’ mentality, maintaining – or even increasing – the human element will be key to customer retention.

It’s understood that online retailing promotes greater flexibility on both sides of the counter, but it’s also easy to lose sight of some basic principles. Attentive, responsive customer service will always be the cornerstone of any sales interaction regardless of how pervasive Google, Facebook et al become in the future.

Iain Dooley

Editor, Agenda

Auto Retail Network

Tags: BMW, click, collect, customer, online, retail, service, Store