"Double 11" Auto E-Commerce Changes: Monologue To Stage Singing, Return To "Information Business"

On November 11, tmall auto ushered in the climax of this year's "double 11" Carnival. Ten billion car purchase subsidies were launched again, and the discount reached the top. The maximum amount of subsidy for a single car could reach 50000.

Compared with the national "buy it now" vehicle sale two years ago, the platform has made significant concessions in channel innovation.

On the direct sales page of tmall, only the brands of two joint ventures of SAIC Group (SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC GM) participated in the "10 billion subsidy". Although the discount is large, there are less than 20 models that can really enjoy. In addition, the offline transaction point of relevant models is also limited to a special store in Hangzhou.

In the "buy it now" activities in the previous two years, more than 30 models of Mercedes Benz, BMW, Volvo, Land Rover and other brands participated in the special sale. After paying the deposit online, consumers directly went to the nearest sales outlets to pay the final payment and collect the car.

At the same time of compromise of e-commerce direct sales, this year's auto "double 11" will continue to make efforts on tmall, Jingdong, auto home and other platforms. The major platforms play in a similar way. They have launched sales promotion methods such as subsidies for manufacturers to purchase cars, extract half price cars, and win online gifts. After consumers pay their deposits online, they go to the offline traditional dealer stores to buy cars and write them off.

This constitutes the main battlefield of automobile "double 11" - almost all the mainstream independent and joint venture brands have settled in one or more platforms, and different promotion schemes have been formulated for different platforms and models. Taking tmall as an example, it is reported that more than 50 brands and more than 120 models participated in the "double 11" of the platform this year. Under the guidance of manufacturers, more than 7000 offline dealer stores covering more than 30 cities also joined in.

Auto e-commerce finally returns to its original nature. In the automobile circulation chain, the platform starts the "information business" again, transforms the flow into sales leads, and then sells the sales leads to manufacturers or dealers. And the traffic is becoming more and more scarce.

E-commerce return to the clue platform

In this year's "double 11" of tmall, selling cars directly is just a side dish. The main course is that many manufacturers and dealers on the platform have launched various online marketing activities with the help of the "double 11" hot spot.

At the main interface of the automobile sector, 21st century economic reporter found that Beijing Hyundai, Dongfeng Citroen, Dongfeng Peugeot and other joint venture brands, as well as self owned brands such as great wall, Chery and BYD, have launched large-scale car purchase subsidies. In addition, 11 "tmall" and "peanut" car models have been further promoted on tmall and peanuts online.

The marketing activities are mainly led by automobile enterprises, and the most important way for each brand is to provide car purchase subsidies. Generally speaking, the subsidy amount is about 1000-3000 yuan. Consumers can get a higher amount of deduction when they buy a car offline by paying a deposit of about 1000 yuan online.

Some brands and models don't even need to pay a high deposit. They only need to pay a token $9.9 or $1, and they can enjoy similar rights and interests after consumption in the store. There are many new energy vehicles using this mode, such as BYD, geometry, Xiaopeng, etc., which is actually a test drive experience.

It provides a marketing platform for auto enterprises and other auto sellers, and auto e-commerce has returned to its original position in recent two years. In addition to tmall, other platforms, such as Jingdong, auto home and e-Car, have not focused on new car sales through their own channels this year, but only set up platforms for manufacturers and dealers.

Among them, only 12 models, such as BMW, Euler and BAIC Foton, provide full range of car purchase in Jingdong direct sale auto stores, but their service stores are also limited to one or two stores. However, the car home, which has also tried to purchase a car at a "buy it now" basis, has no relevant arrangement this year, but only through holding "Juhui purchase" welfare activities and providing taxi tickets, "making use of it" The willingness of users to visit the stores of offline manufacturers has been strengthened to break through the barriers of e-commerce and stores. "

This is essentially the "information business" in the era of auto e-commerce 1.0. The platform gathers traffic with its own influence, and then feeds back the clues offline. It is obvious that no matter which platform consumers place an order, they need to check a specific offline booking store. After that, relevant stores will receive information for follow-up.

On November 3, Shaolong, general manager of tmall auto business department, admitted in an interview with the media that it is unrealistic to complete auto sales only online, involving a lot of test driving experience, car collection and delivery process. Therefore, this year, tmall has adopted a new model, reorganizing the relationship among manufacturers, platforms and dealers, and on the basis of not damaging the original automobile circulation system, to implement the "double 11" strategy ”Through the discount to improve efficiency, so as to benefit consumers.

Debate on conversion rate

It is helpless for the e-commerce platform to retire to the second tier. In the previous attempts, the disadvantages of the e-commerce direct marketing mode and the challenges to the traditional circulation system have made it difficult for the automobile online direct sales.

In recent two years, although online has developed into a channel that can not be ignored by major manufacturers, the automobile circulation industry chain has gradually become rational. The industry began to realize that the online advantage lies in the flow rather than the transaction. In the flow aggregation and guidance, the online advantage is obvious.

Traditional automobile vertical platforms, such as auto home and e-Car, have accumulated a considerable amount of traffic by relying on media information in the early stage. However, the comprehensive platforms such as tmall and Jingdong have a large number of users and store a large number of potential automobile consumers, which are also attractive to manufacturers.

After returning to "information business", each platform also pays more attention to the display of flow pool. According to data released by tmall on November 11, more than 13 million people watched cars on tmall from November 1 to 1 a.m. on November 11, of which 330000 people ordered new cars online.

However, with the competition among several parties, the traffic is becoming more and more tight. In order to obtain the ideal exposure and customers, the manufacturers and brands can only use the large-scale "coupon" method. In different platforms, manufacturers often adopt different preferential schemes.

The reporter found that the same model on different platforms on the preferential strength is basically similar, but manufacturers will also tilt different resources on different platforms. As traditional vertical platforms, car home and e-Car are easier to obtain relatively rich models and solutions.

Access to traffic is only the first threshold, the real key is how to transform. A BYD dealer in a city in southern China told reporters that the quality of clues on various platforms was uneven. From his personal experience, the status of auto home and e-Car was still higher. Referring to the conversion rate of tmall, he said, "how can we compare with auto home?"

However, the above-mentioned dealers' evaluation of tmall's clues is not high, which is related to BYD's promotion methods on the platform to a certain extent. Compared with other brands, many BYD models sell a "1 yuan deposit". Consumers can enjoy a 1500 yuan gift card when they buy a car, and they can enjoy a six-month iqiyi membership card after a test drive in the store. "As a result, some people didn't come to buy a car at all. They just wanted to exchange iqiyi's monthly card." The dealers said.

During the "double 11" period, large deposits have greatly improved the conversion rate of clues. Tmall also said that the brand side can use CPS (pay as you go) model in the advertising of tmall. "When users come to tmall, they don't just look at the new cars they've issued and how they evaluate them. They come to buy things and want to know what kind of promotional activities there are for this car, so we focus on this." Shaolong said.

However, in the long run, how to turn platform traffic into clues, how to improve the quality of clues, and whether there are other schemes besides the preferential activities will be the common problems faced by comprehensive e-commerce and vertical e-commerce.

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