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For the current traditional automobile sales model, the vehicles sold by automobile enterprises will be delivered from the factory and resold to consumers through dealers. Although compared with the direct sales model, 4S stores have a "one-stop" service, but because the existence of dealers makes the new car market price opaque, so that consumers often feel "pit", Mercedes-Benz brand will try to promote the direct sales model.

A few days ago, Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG board members, responsible for marketing and sales of Beth Ge said in Mercedes-Benz's latest live interview, the current customer most important is the consistency of vehicle pricing, if through the new direct sales model, customers will no longer have to worry about bargaining, but also can get more customer satisfaction. In response, Mercedes-Benz will launch a car direct sales service in Austria, followed by other countries to pilot the model.

This direct selling model is actually the same concept as Tesla and NIO cars. The unified pricing and sales of vehicles can not only make the price more transparent, but also will not make consumers have certain thoughts, worry about the different prices given by each dealer, or be charged as much profit by 4S stores. After all, Mercedes-Benz brand as a luxury brand, body value is higher, preferential space sometimes will be larger.

For the direct sales business is not the Mercedes-Benz brand recently planned to launch the business, it is understood that the current Mercedes-Benz has opened direct sales business in South Africa, Sweden, and achieved good results. And by 2025, bethger reckons, 25% of mercedes-benz's global sales will come online.

However, the direct sales mode of channel online will inevitably cause resistance from dealers. Therefore, Mercedes-Benz plans to promote online development while not avoiding offline sales channels, but inviting dealers to participate and share the benefits of direct sales mode by improving the service level of dealers.

As the main sales support area of Mercedes-Benz brand, China market is naturally also an important position for Mercedes-Benz digital transformation. Therefore, Beth Ge also highlighted the Chinese market, she believes that in the distribution field, the implementation of digital initiatives in China will also have great advantages. In 2015, Mercedes-Benz officially launched Tmall official flagship store, now also won a lot of fans.

According to Mercedes-Benz sales data, Mercedes-Benz sold 935,000 new vehicles worldwide in the first half of 2020, of which 346,000 vehicles were delivered in China, accounting for nearly 40%. The sales volume in half a year has basically recovered to the level of the same period in 2019. As a result, other regions are in a downward shift under this year's epidemic, with growth in China alone helping Mercedes-Benz achieve profit balance.

Of course, such a huge sales volume in the Chinese market will also make it difficult for Mercedes-Benz to promote the direct sales model in the region. After all, under the huge sales volume, it will inevitably affect the profits of more Mercedes-Benz dealers in China. In addition, the full adoption of direct selling mode will also increase the risk to the brand. In the first half of the year, Tesla has encountered many rights protection in China due to random price reduction, while Mercedes-Benz, as a luxury brand, has a more important reputation.

Compared with the traditional car sales model, the direct sales model can not only make consumers more aware of the price of the whole vehicle, but also save the cost and resources of Mercedes-Benz to a great extent, at least in the cost of sales personnel. The acceleration of digital transformation may be caused by Mercedes 'profits in the past two years.

In the first quarter of 2020, Daimler's operating income fell 6 per cent to € 37.2 billion, while EBIT fell 78 per cent year-on-year to € 617 million. Daimler posted a loss of 1.91 billion euros (15.5 billion yuan) in the second quarter. Daimler said it needed to continue its cost-cutting program for the rest of the year, which included cutting 30,000 jobs and considering closing some overseas plants.

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