Keeping the Future in mind

Mercedes-Benz aIms to revolutionise the entire car-buying process with Retail of the Future

THERE WILL BE ONE PRICE SET UNIFORMLY ACROSS THE

COUNTRY

EVER SINCE ONLINE SHOPPING platforms such as Flipkart and Amazon became a thing, I haven’t had to ferry my mom to the market every few weeks. Now she just browses through the list, sees the price tag and orders the item of her choice without spending time trying to argue and haggle with the retailer for a better deal. Someone at Mercedes-Benz had the bright idea of using this logic and applying it to cars. How would that work?

Mercedes-Benz announced its latest brainchild — Retail of the Future earlier this year in June, and has finally launched it in India, which is the first CKD market and fourth overall market to implement this plan.

At present, the manufacturer sells a number of cars to a certain dealer. The dealer has to estimate the demand and order cars accordingly, for which it borrows funds and then pays interest on the cars until they are sold. The dealer also needs funds to store and maintain cars in the stockyard. As a customer, you have to select from the list of cars the dealer has in stock. In most cases you may have to settle for a certain variant or colour because the variant or the colour of your choice was not in stock. As part of Retail of the Future, MercedesBenz is taking direct control of inventory, processing, deliveries, and prices. MercedesBenz has divided the process of ‘a seamless customer journey’ into five different steps — quotation, order booking, order finalisation, invoicing, and handover. For the first time, customers gain access to a national stock list, which will help them select from a wide range of cars and choose the exact variant and colour of their choice, irrespective of where your car is in stock across the country. The order completion will take place over a period of 14 days by paying a booking amount of `50,000, which is fully refundable should the customer decide to back out. For the first time, the VIN number will also be confirmed and shown to the customer during the booking stage itself. Once the booking order gets confirmed and verified, the customer will receive an e-mail from Mercedes-Benz. There will also be no incidental charges — say you want your E-Class delivered to your doorstep. Mercedes-Benz will deliver your car on a flatbed without any charges.

Meanwhile the role of the dealers, or franchise partners, will now be to enhance the customer experience further and also facilitate the delivery of cars. They will now compete against each other based on ratings submitted on their website. This will be beneficial for them as they won’t be forced to move stock and offer discounts to recover any lost money.

Since MBIL is now taking direct control of prices, there will only be one price set uniformly across the country, so no need to visit your dealer and haggle for a hard bargain. With a national stock list, you also won’t have to settle for something different because the variant and colour of your choice is not in stock. More importantly this will also offer Mercedes-Benz a better insight into the customer’s demands and preferences, which will help the brand offer us exactly what we want and need. A win-win for everyone!