Uncomfortable takes: car marketing is missing the point and soon we’ll be buying cars off Amazon
A week ago I gleefully shared a post by the Digital Manager of Skoda in the UK sharing the news that Skoda had started a trial with Amazon (full disclosure, Skoda is my employer’s client, but I don’t work for them and I was not asked/invited to re-share by anyone I work with; neither, for that matter, is this post driven by anything my company would have asked me to write about. They don’t). This is what the post said “Škoda has become the first European automotive brand to offer an Amazon car showroom that seamlessly integrates real-time vehicle availability. This innovative platform allows UK customers to browse the full Škoda range, check local availability, request a test drive, and explore finance options — all before visiting a chosen Škoda retailer to make a purchase and enjoying a ‘click to drive’ experience.”
What does this mean? Well, initially it means that Skoda is trying to outsource some of its purchase funnel to Amazon to see whether people would be interested in that experience (it’s called TNR, the new retail). But what it speaks of is the more tantalising possibility (probability?) that in the not so distant future you will be buying your new car online. I say “new” because you can buy used cars online in the UK quite easily with the option to have them delivered to your door. But it appears that for some reason and we can discuss that a bit further on, new cars are not as easy to purchase online.
I asked my husband whether he’d buy a new car online. He said he’d need to go to a showroom first if it was a car he’d never driven before but the answer was definitely yes. There is no reason why you would not buy it online. The old retail model in automotive was predicated on big brand showrooms located on the outskirts of cities and an even bigger network of dealers. Buying a car was an adventure, not an experience.
It was definitely not an experience for me. I bought 2 new cars in my life, a Ford and a Volvo and both interactions were not ideal (granted they were in Romania, 10 years ago so one could argue CX was not a massive concern for dealerships at the time). When I got the Ford I had to take my dad along because people just would not talk to me. When I bought the Volvo I had to aggressively push to be shown the model I wanted, tell the person assisting me multiple times that I did not want a massive amount of add ons but I did end up with a new set of rims which turned out to be so massive that my male friends thought I was going to race in F2. They also cost twice as much to service. Both experiences left me unwilling to go into a dealership and more inclined to seal the deal online.
And why wouldn’t you? If you’ve driven the car, either as a rental or through friends, you would not need a test drive. If you’re leasing, you won’t be committing to something for too long a time, so the economic risk is small. Ultimately, your risk should be smaller overall IF you’re buying online from the actual carmaker. So why not? Why not buy ALL new cars online right now?
Infrastructure is the first answers and I won’t go into that now.
Optics is another and I can go into this a bit more easily here. For a very long time, we’ve advertised cars as lifestyle machines. You can charge a premium if the car you choose says something about who you are, rather than just doing a functional thing. Some luxury cars also advertise the feel or experience of driving the car. But the reality of the VAST majority of cars is they are vehicles that help you DO and not always just BE. And in that dynamic, your decision is rational above emotional, financial above experiential. And there is no shame in that. A car that drives well, is reliable, roomy and gets you places is great. Brands like Dacia, Skoda and a many Japanese, Korean and Chinese cars have quietly built solid market shares on just that. And when the choice is rational you do not need to go through a long purchase funnel. You go to Amazon, you choose the car and you buy it with a click.
What about financing, you say? Cars have complex financial purchase funnels when you don’t want to fork out 20k on Amazon. But think about it, we offer financing solutions for everything else right now. It’s built into how Amazon and any shopping experience operates. Klarna is able to verify you when you buy an H&M skirt online. The foundational principles exist so why would we pretend like “it won’t work for a big purchase”.
People call this shift in automotive The New Retail. It is only new for cars. What it fundamentally does is to take the principles of online shopping and apply them to every category. And if there is one thing I have repeated here, over and over, is that “if it’s easier for the customer, it will happen”. Would it be easier to buy a brand new car on Amazon and have it delivered to your door? I say yes but am happy to be overruled. Anyone out there wanting to give me cons?
