Toyota's sad "net" thing

The sales method and market vitality of a product are inseparable from the culture or habits of the specific consumer groups in the region. Sales experience is used in the United States.

During the operation of the car trading platform, "Sassoon" of an electrical appliance group believed that there were two failures. First, the establishment of the online sales platform was not complete. Buying a car online is not as convenient as buying a car in person, and it lacks personal experience, which shows that there is still a lot of work to be done after the website is built. The second is to ignore the broker's profits. To do so when the time is not yet ripe is to cut yourself off.

According to user analysis of the CEConline website, the following three solutions can resolve Nakata's difficulties.

Cancel the trading platform and position the website for service and promotion

It is difficult to change the consumption pattern of a country or a region. In such an environment, Toyota can cancel the online sales platform and position the function of the website to cooperate with and support the original sales channels for pre-sales and after-sales related services and publicity, rather than forcing the customers of the original brokers.

A communication company's "fish bone" for example, GE has been cultivating customer resources through good services in the process of entering the medical device market. Toyota's website can play the role of a service platform and become an environment shared by manufacturers, brokers and users, providing a benign development space for the survival and expansion of the website, and a foundation for the ultimate realization of online transactions.

After the online transaction part is removed from the website, the promotion of the product should be vigorously strengthened, and various services should be provided to customers at the same time. "bill_meng" and "Xiaotd" suggest that the website should add the following sections:

*Provide financial services solutions. In the introduction of each car, several plans for car purchase by installments are added, and users can choose plans with different down payment amount, monthly repayment amount and repayment period. Similarly, insurance plans can be designed. This allows users to know how much they will spend on the website before buying a Toyota.

* Set up the broker platform. The basic information and regional distribution of the broker are recorded, and the user can find the location of the most convenient dealer and the models that the dealer can provide on the electronic map.

*Play information collection and investigation functions. For example, it records the basic information and regional distribution of members, records the number of views of specific products, the situation of leaving messages, the area of the viewers, etc., and allows brokers to call relevant information.

Independent trading platform, selling multiple brands

The second plan is to put Toyota's trading platform at a strategic height of marketing, and integrate auto sales, financial services, and after-sales services into the Internet.

"Lao Dai", a consulting firm, believes that to achieve this, it is necessary to completely change the traditional car sales model, to separate Toyota's website, and to sell not only Toyota cars, but also other brands of cars, similar to a VISA A model in which a credit card institution provides services to various banks. The development of network technology provides the driving conditions for this new network service model.

"Wang Tao" also illustrates the feasibility of this approach: in the United States, autobytel, carsdirect, carpoint, yahooauto, aolauto, etc. are all representative car sales websites, which sell cars of all brands. GM has also started the business of online sales, but it is more of a strategic alliance with dealers. In early 2002, GM even envisaged investing with dealers to build a multi-brand car sales network system.

The most users provide input for this scheme. At present, Toyota has developed an online transaction system, and both disposal and low-return use will bring a heavy burden to the enterprise. If the company is confident in the network, it should make short-term adjustments to modify the current online trading system to make it work as it should.

Close cooperation with brokers Through the survey report, it can be known that the main sales channel of US automakers is still through brokers, and the team of brokers in the United States is very large. The ability to win over brokers or control the distribution network in this environment is decisive for the marketability of the product.

Cooperation with brokers includes many aspects. First, the website must support the broker's sales. By adding the contact information of brokers around the trading platform, car buyers can directly contact the broker. "jackymltr" of a digital company in Dalian suggested that dealers can also place orders directly through the website.

Second, enable the broker to support the users of the website. Make full use of Toyota's sales outlets throughout the United States, so that consumers in any place can get the most timely response from local Toyota brokers as long as they make a transaction request on the Toyota website, even if it is just an appointment for a test drive. At the same time, brokers can take part of the funds to participate in the construction of the website.

Third, online prices should not compete with reseller prices. To make the agent layer have a certain profit, after all, the agent provides products to customers is a process of value-added services.

Provide a full range of services to consumers First, Toyota's Web site should provide customers with comprehensive information services. "jackymltr" believes that in addition to product information, the website should also provide knowledge on vehicle maintenance and repair, some skills and common sense for buying a car.

Secondly, it is necessary to provide integrated value-added services for the majority of customers, such as increasing the content of financial services, cooperating with banks to implement installment payments, or providing loans for car buyers, and also cooperating with some insurance companies to provide customers with cars Insurance services. Car-related accessories can also be ordered directly on the website.

The third is to provide customers with personalized products and services. "Weiqiang" of an industrial company in Shenzhen mentioned in the plan provided that the website can enable customers to participate in the process of "manufacturing" cars on the basis of standardized products. "Personalized" service. "MAGICLI" from a university in Beijing suggested that only certain colors or types of models be exclusively sold online, so as to guide consumers to try to buy cars online.

Self-built supply channel In addition to the broker's channel, Toyota can also consider establishing its own channel to serve online shoppers, reduce intermediate links, reduce waiting time, and provide test-drive services.

Whether the cost of establishing a new sales channel can match the expected benefit is best demonstrated by a pilot run. The website user "kanexie" tends to implement the online direct selling model in a regionalized manner to prove the future of online sales, which requires the establishment of a logistics service and a direct selling service center at the same time, and also needs to abandon the dealers in a certain area. If it succeeds, it will be promoted vigorously, and if it fails, it will not be wiped out.

Strengthen the promotion of the sales platform and control the cost Toyota needs to promote the unique trading platform, not only tell customers what new and good cars are available, but also tell them that they can buy cars directly here, and let consumers know that, What kind of convenience the website can bring to his car consumption. At the same time, the cost of the website is controlled, and the unnecessary and unnecessary things on the website that are not suitable for American tastes can be omitted to reduce the operation cost of the website; control the number of inventory and reduce the cost of inventory.

This article was organized by Marisa Wang. For more case studies and discussions, please visit the CEConlines website.