Mercedes-Benz aims to achieve 25% sales via its online platform

KUALA LUMPUR: Mercedes-Benz aims to achieve 25 percent of new car sales through online transactions, and Malaysia will be a crucial contributor.

Mercedes-Benz Group’s Board Member for Sales & Marketing, Britta Seegar, confirmed Malaysia’s role in the company’s digital sales channel project that Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia will join in the future. Confirming the news, Seeger said, “The next step towards this milestone is opening our online stores for Mercedes-Benz lovers in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam, who can now find their dream car more conveniently than ever before, e.g. by contacting our Mercedes experts easily online or by even more options to filter their search based on their personal wishes. In addition to that, we keep improving what’s already there: A couple of days ago, Thailand went live with the full online sales journey, including deposit payment,”

By 2025, the German automaker aims to convert the 25% global online sales figure to 80%. Quite ambitious, huh? However, it is possible, especially with the brand’s well-built online car selling platform. The Mercedes-Benz dealers will continue to exist and be a part of the car selling journey, responsible for completing the transaction, registration, and delivery.

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In Europe, however, Mercedes-Benz will gradually transition into a direct sales mole, thus skipping the dealers completely. It will be an agency-based model wherein the dealers will hold no stock and will have no targets. Since the sales will no longer be closed by the dealer, there will be no commissions and, therefore, no heavy discounts for the buyer. There will be only one fixed price, and the manufacturer will control the customer experience from start to end.

The existing Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Europe will get transformed into brand experience stores. Their job will be to facilitate test drives and assist in completing the vehicle purchase.

As for Malaysia-bound Mercedes-Benz dealers, unlike in Europe, they will be responsible for car delivery even after the sales transactions become purely online, i.e., by 2025.

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