In the eyes of many car companies, 2019 is a period of deep adjustment for China's automobile industry. In 2020, the market may enter a state of stopping falling and stabilizing. However, no one expected that at the beginning of 2020, a "black swan" novel coronavirus epidemic would deal a heavy blow to the automobile industry. On February 11, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association, after further expanding the scope and sample of dealers' resumption of work survey, of the 2,895 4S stores surveyed by the association, currently only 573 have resumed work, with a resumption rate of only 19.8%. .
In this "war epidemic", automobile 4S stores, which usually rely on store visits to make transactions, seem deserted. On the contrary, "live broadcast" and online car viewing have become the most important keywords in the current auto market. It is understood that on February 10, the first day of resumption of work during the Spring Festival holiday, BMW China held three live broadcasts at its official flagship store on Tmall. Mainstream car brands such as Audi, Ford, Buick, Toyota, Hyundai, Geely, Changan, and Great Wall, as well as new car manufacturing forces such as AIWAYS, NIO, and Xpeng, are all looking for opportunities online. Looking around the entire automotive industry, it can be said that it is quiet offline but lively online! So, what Gui Ge wants to say is, will online live broadcast be the "reassurance" for automakers to seek self-help?
Quiet offline: Flexible resumption of work? One or two groups of people entering the store every day
Originally, after the Spring Festival every year, from the fifteenth day of the first lunar month to the beginning of the next month, customers quickly pick up period. First of all, the number of maintenance customers has increased sharply. In addition, in-store new car training and new marketing activities have also begun. Many car dealers are beginning to prepare for 315. But this year, a sudden new coronavirus epidemic broke the traditional rhythm of car dealers.
“We don’t have to work in the store every day like before, but the work is not easy at all.” A sales consultant at a 4S store of a joint venture brand in Changchun said with emotion. “Every day, we have to participate in live training, and then do To prepare for various live broadcasts, we also need to organize WeChat groups to explain and interact with customers on WeChat."
Indeed, when you open the interface of live broadcast APPs such as Douyin and Kuaishou, in addition to the common handsome guys and beauties, a series of car logos and avatars of sales consultants also pop up - including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi. , as well as Toyota, Volkswagen, Geely, Changan, Great Wall, and Roewe. Except for the direct participation of a few automobile manufacturers, in many cases, the automobile 4S stores in various regions organize live broadcasts themselves. “We have all received live broadcast training from manufacturers before,” said a self-owned brand car dealer in Changchun. “We are also exploring and learning about this model. We will see what the current Internet celebrity anchors say, and then think of various ways. It’s really not easy to interact with consumers.”
On live broadcast platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Douyu and Inke, Gui Ge saw that car dealers are also very hardworking. Not only are the content forms diverse, but they are also very rich. There are sales staff at car 4S stores, using mobile phone lenses to view cars with in-store videos; there are car 4S store trainers and sales consultants driving hot-selling models on the road, talking while driving; there are also sales staff in the parking lot of car 4S stores It demonstrates black technology functions such as automatic parking, automatic reversing, and anti-collision.
The new car-making forces that already have Internet attributes will not let this opportunity pass by. In order to quickly cultivate consumers, they have used all their "strange tricks". Among them, Weilai is a brand new player. It is understood that NIO has been live broadcasting car talks and car sales since February 1. In terms of form, in addition to the common sales staff routine of talking about cars/selling cars/testing cars, NIO has also invited some car owners to conduct live broadcasts. , explaining the product features of the car experience as a car owner. Later, he also challenged the clerk to do plank support, explained coffee knowledge, etc. In short, he used various new, strange and unique ways to attract customers. On February 14, Xpeng Motors also launched multiple live broadcasts with the theme "Although we can't meet each other, we can fall in love online".
It is understood that the automobile industry has been affected by the epidemic. From upstream material production, to logistics, to factory production, every link in the supply chain has been affected to varying degrees.
The situation in the retail industry is even less optimistic. Recently, the China Automobile Dealers Association released a report showing that in January 2020, national car sales were 1.941 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 18%, while the auto dealer inventory warning index in January reached 62.7%, a month-on-month increase of 6.3 percentage points, a year-on-year increase 6.5 percentage points, the inventory warning index is still above the warning line. Due to the impact of the epidemic, even though February last year was during the Spring Festival holiday, dealers still generally believe that sales in February this year will decline by at least 50% year-on-year.
Under the epidemic, online live broadcast is also a helpless move. “While we are live streaming on Kuaishou or Douyin, we will also launch some discounts and policies,” a sales consultant from a brand store in Changchun revealed. “If customers are interested in the models I recommend, we will add each other on WeChat, and then, Communicate concretely.” But in terms of "efficiency", the dealer's online live broadcast is not particularly obvious in "bringing goods", and there are only a few consumers who attract customers and place orders.
After all, this is not a lipstick that cost several hundred yuan a piece during Li Jiaqi's live broadcast. You can't just "buy it, buy it"! However, now, the process and services for online car ordering are also very complete. It is reported that if customers order or buy a car online, most car brands will have a way to operate completely online and finally deliver the car to their doorstep.
Ghost talk: Early this morning, the second brother who worked as the after-sales service technical director of a 4S store of FAW-Volkswagen and slept in the lower bunk of Brother Gui when he was in college suddenly called me: "What do you think about the car?" How many years can 4S stores survive? Salespeople have begun to use various live broadcasts to sell cars, but judging from the current situation, our company may not be able to survive the epidemic! "Perhaps it is too pessimistic, it is more likely. The store had been operating poorly before, and this epidemic may be the straw that broke the camel's back. It is true that under the epidemic, the butterfly effect of the automotive industry has become more and more obvious. Both the upstream and retail terminals of the automotive industry are struggling to resist, waiting for the final "spring blossoms". For the online self-help of car 4S stores, its effect may not be as obvious as other "cargo kings", but this new attempt and exploration will allow them to take another big step on the road to growth. Maybe after this epidemic, the form of selling cars will really change dramatically, it’s really hard to say!
The Ghost Truck Cluster will then launch a series of reports called "White Paper on the Current Situation of Car Dealers Under the Epidemic", which will use exclusive telephone interviews to show the current living situation of car dealers based on real situations and detailed data. , if you have any ideas or suggestions, please leave your views!
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.