Two Degree Hand In Hand Tmall: Behind The Breakthroughs In The Localization Of Tesla'S Localization

"Heard that you can find Tesla boutique equipment on meow star?"

In April 16th, Tesla official WeChat sent such a message, announces the official opening of Tesla Tmall flagship store. In the text, Tesla's propaganda team is also equipped with a witty copy: "before we conquer Mars, we first land on the meow star."

Car companies open flagship stores on the electricity supplier is not a rare thing. In the search engine, enter the "car flagship store" keywords, the page will pop up Chery automobile Tmall flagship store, Geely Automobile Tmall flagship store, BEIJING automobile Jingdong flagship store and many other car companies online sales platform.

However, unlike these online stores, Tesla does not consider its Tmall flagship store as a direct channel for selling cars. According to the briefing, Tesla will only provide official car parts and test drive products and services on Tmall. In the future, Tesla will also launch its official periphery.

As the first brand to sell directly in the industry, Tesla continues to keep its sales channels firmly in its own hands, but this does not mean that Tesla doesn't sell cars online. Although there is no vehicle ordering link, Tmall's flagship store provides a trial driving appointment service for all models, and plans to broadcast live on the platform, all of which will drain the vehicle sales.

"By entering Tmall, Tesla extended the online mode to the third party platform." Tesla said in its news release. In the eyes of the industry, this will be a further breakthrough in the localization of Tesla in China after the construction of Shanghai super factory, domestic Model 3 and Model Y.

Some people also interpret this as "Tesla's business philosophy" has undergone subtle changes since its entry into the Chinese market and began to "fully empower the front-line executives". For Tesla, who has long been criticized for not understanding the Chinese market, this is a welcome change.

As early as six years ago, Tesla had once worked with Tmall, but that cooperation failed. According to the media reports at that time, the "double 11" car sold by the Chinese team was opposed by the headquarters at that time because of the destruction of the original vehicle delivery rules, which exposed the pain of the lack of discourse power of the Chinese team.

This will be a further breakthrough in the localization of Tesla in China after the construction of Shanghai super factory, domestic Model 3 and Model Y. Gan Jun photo

No cars, but cars.

The Tmall flagship store is the first official flagship store for third party platforms opened by Tesla in China, but its main commodity is not a car.

According to the introduction, the first batch of goods on the official flagship store are mainly custom tailored accessories for Tesla, such as advanced interior accessories, performance pedals, mobile phone fast charging boards, etc. As at 18 hours in April 16th, the most popular item in the store was the Model 3 entity key, with a single price of 1200 yuan.

As a flagship online car buying and remote service company, online sales are no stranger to Tesla. The breakthrough in Tmall is to expand the online mode to the third party platform, and to form a closed loop of online service for after-sales service, vehicle service and exclusive accessories.

However, online sales of auto parts are not unique to the Tesla family. In the Tmall automotive sector, twenty-first Century economic news reporter noted that BMW and other car companies also provided an online ordering channel for attachments and even maintenance services in the official flagship store.

Although there was no provision to buy cars, Tesla did not give up the drainage of potential consumers from Tmall's large shopping platform. In Tesla Tmall flagship store, users can make an appointment to test drive, which is only a nominal charge of 1 yuan.

In addition, Tesla also arranged live broadcast on Tmall. It is reported that from April 21st onwards, Tesla will broadcast live in eight major cities in China. This reporter learned that during the Spring Festival, Tesla has conducted a number of test drive and share live broadcast, but this is the first show on Tmall platform.

Localization layout test water

"The opening of Tmall's official flagship store has greatly increased Tesla's user contacts and is a breakthrough in its localization channel development." Tesla said.

Tesla is not entirely like a novice in Tmall flagship store operation. In addition to the live broadcast of the launch, Tesla also adopted some other e-commerce marketing methods, such as the April 16th -21 day, and "waiting to unlock" micro welfare.

In general, Tesla Tmall flagship store has been online booking test drive, exclusive accessories and boutique periphery, etc., and will continue to attract eyeball drainage in the coming week by marketing combination such as big coffee assistance, business carnival, city live broadcast and so on.

Zheng Yun, senior partner of Roland Berger and vice president of Greater China, looks at the fact that as the online flagship store's products and functions are constantly enriched, Tesla is expected to build a closed loop from the car to the car and the user life cycle.

"This will be further deepened in the localization of Tesla in China after the construction of the Shanghai super factory, the domestic Model 3 and the Model Y." Zheng Yun said Tesla's exploration of the third party platform will further strengthen its performance in China.

Specifically, he analyzed, through in-depth cooperation with Tmall, with its platform influence and user traffic, Tesla is expected to usher in a new marketing burst point, which will continue to deepen brand influence and user awareness in China, especially with the new generation of Internet users.

In fact, Tesla's localization marketing layout in China has already started. According to our reporter, at the end of last year, Tesla China had collected media marketing programs internally, encouraged offline sales to "develop" on different platforms, and strive for maximum marketing results at the lowest cost. It is also under such a train of thought that since the Spring Festival, Tesla has been the first to start broadcasting live on the platform such as jitter and so on. These factors add to the Chinese market's popularity in the first quarter.

From a broader perspective, Tesla's test water may once again lead the industry as a whole. Zheng Yun believes that for the traditional host plant and other new power brands, the transformation will be more urgent.

"This will be another attack launched by Tesla." Zheng Yun said, "every host plant should give full attention to its strategy and tactics. It should be rooted in the profound insight of local users, explore new retail and new marketing models that match their brand tonality, and speed up the negative impact of the new crown epidemic."

Does China's team autonomy increase?

The opening of the third party platform is a breakthrough for Tesla. People familiar with Tesla China commented on the matter: "fully empowering front-line executives."

This is not the first time Tesla has opened a shop in Tmall. As early as late October 2014, Tesla China announced its presence in Tmall mall and entered Tmall's "double 11" shopping carnival. But that activity failed to follow the plan.

According to media reports at that time, Tesla originally prepared 18 Model S cars for the "double 11", which can be "lightening up" five days after the consumer orders and paid the full amount. It was a good try, but an email from the US headquarters stopped the activity.

It is reported that the reason for being stopped is the destruction of Tesla's direct selling rules. According to headquarters, the five day "lightning pick up" is unfair to other users scheduled in the official website. The media saw the embarrassing position of Tesla China team from this incident.

"It is undeniable that this storm highlights the common problems of foreign enterprises entering China's local market: when the Chinese region tries to do more localization innovation, the decision-making power and discourse power of the Chinese region appears" Aphasia "at certain times. Some media are commenting.

Since then, the domestic media has also been particularly concerned about the jurisdiction of Tesla China team. In a small media exchange last year, someone asked, "is it possible for Chinese factories to have independent pricing power?"

The response of China's top executives also showed Tesla's tendency to decentralization in the regional market. "Needless to say, in the future, not all pricing is fully applied to foreign countries for some time." At that time, Tesla Asia Pacific vice president Xue Juncheng said.

It is worth mentioning that he also mentioned the "unified policy", suggesting that the operation of the Chinese team can not deviate from the gist of the headquarters. The Tmall flagship store does not sell cars. It also means that Tesla's proprietary platform is still the only way to buy cars.

Tesla itself has a mature self operated online platform as a vehicle company that pioneered and successfully implemented online direct operation in the industry. In order to save costs, Mask once declared "to turn the sales mode to online sales on a global scale". Though it was not implemented at last, the strength of its online channels can be seen.

Spare parts and after sales are not the core business of Tesla. Tesla's flagship store in Tmall is indeed expanding the localization channel, but this channel is not the sales level, but the market level.

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