“No haggling at the dealer”
BMW wants to rely heavily on direct sales
April 13, 2023, 5:50 p.m
Intensified direct sales are to start in the coming years, first for the Mini brand and then for BMW itself. The group intends to sell every fourth car online. Dealers should still get a commission, and test drives should also be possible.
The Munich-based carmaker BMW no longer wants to sell a significant proportion of its cars through dealers, but rather itself. “We expect that in the near future a quarter of our vehicles will be sold directly via the Internet,” Sales Director Pieter Nota told the “Münchener Merkur”. There will then be no more discounts, every customer pays the list price.
“There will be no more haggling at the dealer,” Nota said. Many people would not like to negotiate prices anyway. As he went on to say, customers will be able to put their vehicles together on the group’s website and order them directly. The delivery then takes place via a dealer, who also receives the commission. At the dealer, test drives or the entire purchase process are still possible. Direct sales at BMW are scheduled to start in 2026 and for the Mini brand as early as 2024.
The magazine “Autohaus” had recently written, that the pressure on the sales departments of the other manufacturers is likely to increase as a result of the announcement from Munich that they will take appropriate measures and rely more on direct sales. According to the portal, whether the vehicle business will remain adequate for retailers, which BMW promises, depends on the amount of the margin granted on the one hand and on the other hand on how the dealers can reduce their sales costs to compensate for the lower margin. According to the portal, the introduction of new systems is ultimately always about reducing sales costs.