Exclusive e-shopping steers car owner carts
Online malls operated by auto manufacturers burnish brands, win consumers
For Guo Shiqiang, 38, manager of a food processing company in Beijing’s Tongzhou district, traditional e-commerce platforms like JD or Taobao are no longer the primary go-to destinations for online shopping.
Instead, he prefers Nio Life, the online shopping platform of Chinese electric vehicle startup Nio. Ever since he bought a Nio ES6 in 2021, Nio Life has become part of his life. He buys every conceivable product that a modern man needs: socks, jackets, wines, bags, what have you.
Last year, Guo spent nearly 3,000 yuan ($417) on such products on Nio Life. Some of the purchases were made via redemption of Nio Life’s award points earned for posts, test drive recommendations and so on. Mugs, cups, biscuits, nuts, kitchen accessories, backpacks ... all were scooped up from Nio Life.
“One reason is that some items are available only here, which gives you a sense of rarity. For other items, you just need them anyway. If you can place an order on Nio Life or some other certain platforms, why bother buying elsewhere?”
One example of a product with a rare or distinct touch is the backpack, a collaborative effort between Nio and Chalayan, an alternative fashion brand established in 1994.
The fact that Nio’s founder William Li owns the same backpack holds a special significance for Guo. He views wearing the same backpack as Li as a profound endorsement of the brand as a car owner, expressing his strong connection to Nio.
“You don’t have the same bags as the ones used by Mercedes or BMW bosses even if you drive those cars, do you?”
Guo said Nio Life’s strengths lie in its diverse categories and highquality products. Now he is interested in buying a camping tent in the store.
“From time to time, I browse through Nio’s e-shop, particularly enjoying products with creative designs,” he said.
Guo’s experience mirrors that of a rising number of Chinese car owners, mostly male consumers of domestic EVs.
For them, buying a car has also proved to be a gateway to a new community that offers consumer products and other online interactive features.
Zhang Chutian, who is in charge of Nio Life, said consumer feedback plays a pivotal role in influencing the design and development of products sold on the online platform.
He said the online platform has distinguished producers of new energy vehicles from traditional automobile enterprises.
Nio Life positions itself as a lifestyle brand collaborating with more than 600 global designers, Zhang said.
“The purpose of the platform is to establish a community rooted in automobiles, share joys and growth,” said Zhang. “The creation of Nio Life serves the purpose of building an interactive and longterm bridge between the brand and car users.”
Over the six years since its inception, the platform has sold over 15 million items, introducing 800-1,000 products annually.
Nio Life features its sustainable fashion brand Blue Sky Lab, which prioritizes recycled fabrics and accessories.
The shopping platform has also developed its unique products. For this Chinese New Year, the platform has unveiled its dragonthemed collection, including collaborations with Chinese artist Lin Zinan.
“The core of Nio Life’s business model is to create more value-added products for our car users,” said Zhang.
Nio is not the only brand to do so. The rapid development of the Chinese NEV market has upgraded the way car users interact with vehicle producers.
The delivery of a vehicle is only the beginning of a long relationship with the users, creating more possible consumption scenarios.
For example, sales representatives often showcase to visitors to their store the company’s official mobile app, which has strong social functions.
The accumulative points are part of a reward system of the app, often redeemed to buy consumer products or pay service fees for changing batteries or maintenance fees.
Lu Nan, 35, an office worker in Beijing, is all praise for this system. He bought a Li Auto six-seat family SUV last year. He earned 45,000 points that could be converted into purchases on the vehicle producer’s official online shopping mall, which is integrated into the mobile app of Li Auto.
The points translated into a value of 4,500 yuan. Being a father of an 8-year-old daughter, Lu used the points to buy an outdoor cooking kit, a membership for video streaming platform iQiyi, a thermos bottle, an outdoor go-cart and an inflatable mattress.
“The car, with its comfortable seats and three screens for video entertainment, is like a moving home for us now,” said Lu. “It is an upgraded experience from my old Toyota.”
The iQiyi membership cards, available at the Li Auto shopping mall, sold out quickly given their popularity among car owners.
“To be able to watch movies and TV series in the car while waiting to pick up our child from school is pure pleasure,” Lu said.
The model not only provided a smart in-car experience but also enabled the Lu family to ride to city suburbs for camping with friends.
Lu said outdoor gear and equipment purchased with points enhanced their outdoor activities, extending “the joy of exploring mountains and spending time with friends”.
“Browsing Li Auto’s online shopping mall has become a hobby for me,” said Lu, who appreciates finding interesting products recommended by the vehicle producer.
According to user insight data from Li Auto, the primary buyers of its cars consist of men aged 35-44, many of whom are married with one or two children.
For its L7 model, 80 percent of the buyers are adult males aged up to 50.
Li Auto, a prominent Chinese NEV brand, has seen total deliveries in 2023 increase by 182 percent to 376,030 units, with cumulative deliveries surpassing 600,000 vehicles by the end of 2023.
It has operated 467 retail stores in 140 cities. Given the wide range of its user base, sales of consumer products on its official e-store are thriving.
In 2021, the e-store launched over 500 in-car wireless microphones priced at 365 yuan. They sold out within 25 minutes. Another batch of 1,800 units a few days later also quickly sold out within one hour.
A creative product with a cultural touch not only generates buzz for the brand but serves as a medium for emotional communication between the brand and consumers.
As Chinese NEV startups tasted branding success through creative consumer products with a cultural touch, traditional vehicle producers ranging from Geely to Volkswagen jumped on the niche e-commerce bandwagon.
Dongfeng Nissan has invested in the consumer product development category in recent years to foster its brand and reputation while enhancing interactions with car owners.
In 2020, the Sino-Japanese joint venture, which serves more than 16 million consumers, introduced its own consumer brand “Good Things”, under which products like classic badges, 26 classic models and a new brand logo are retailed.
And then, in the following two years, Dongfeng Nissan continued to launch various consumer products, from the collaborative mahjong set, the “Father’s Love Like a Mountain” wine set, to the “Cloud Map” electric boarding luggage.