Mercedes-Benz can now be bought online

German auto maker Daimler has started a pilot project so customers are now able to buy some Mercedes-Benz models. The cars can be ordered via Daimler’s own online store and purchases will be executed and handled by Daimler’s Hamburg dealership. Will the car industry ever embrace ecommerce as a selling channel?

Merced-Benz is currently only selling its A-Class, B-Class, CLA and CLS models via the online store, but it’s a beginning nonetheless. And customers that like to shop online and are now thinking about purchasing their new car via an online store, they don’t have to worry: online prices of a Mercedes-Benz car will be identical to the ones advertised by dealerships. Although, if you are used to negotiate with a dealer about the price of the car, which is not uncommon in this industry, then this might be one of the few products where the price is actually not a reason to order it online.

So far online sales dominated by used cars only
The automobile business was predicted to be one of the fast growing businesses when internet became big, but so far it couldn’t reach up to its expectations yet. The many  choices to be made when buying a car, the structure of many dealers in every city, combined with the average car price and discounts for trading an old car in when buying a new one, makes it quite hard to sell a brand new car online, so it seems. Second hand cars however became quite a big online business in many European countries, so many people expect it’s just a matter of time until the car business will overcome this problems.

Mercedes Benz not the first car to be sold online
Online car sales currently are dominated by used cars only, but Daimler is certainly not the only auto maker that has discovered ecommerce for selling new cars. BMW is selling its i3 since mid-November and Renault sold its Dacia via an online store in Italy more than two years ago. Altogether it seems that at the moment selling brand new cars online isn’t that big of a market, but who knows what will happen in a few years.  The ecommerce industry is constantly and rapidly moving, so we will not be surprised if it’s going to be a billion market in a couple of years.