Look, 1.6% doesn’t sound like a lot, but for a brave new world and an all new business model, it’s an impressive start for Volkswagen Australia’s Online Orders.
The percentage is just our own calculation based on Volkswagen Australia telling us that 433 vehicles have been sold online this year, against VFACTS year-to-date sales data showing 26,090 cars heading out the showroom doors at VW.
At $26,000,000 in sales, it puts the average sale price at just over $60,000 which is a nice sweet spot for the brand.
No doubt the T-Roc which was announced earlier this year and is finally in showrooms ahead of it’s November on-sale date is a big part of those sales.
Additionally, over 80% of those customers chose to add on the Volkswagen Care Plan which was introduced earlier this year and another eighty per cent of those took the full five year Care Plan.
That whole online process of ticking a box to add it on seems to be making a real difference, we’d speculate that the take-up of those Care Plans in dealerships would be much lower.
But it’s not just the online orders, there have been millions of requests for dealer contact, tripling on last year – perhaps down to that awesome marketing even my kids keep talking about with the T-Cross seemingly at the head of the marketing pack.
An online order requires a $500 deposit after you customise your car, after which you hear from a dealer to arrange the delivery process.
Volkswagen Australia’s Director Customer Experience and Marketing, Jason Bradshaw, said the growth in online sales was “definitely attributable to our new online tools that now include stock search, trade-in-valuation and pre-order”.
“Our Dealership Partners, which are always the completion point of purchase and delivery, also directly benefit from our enhanced online ability, not least during the unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-10 pandemic.”
It’s a brave new world at Volkswagen
