Mercedes –Benz India introduces Retail of the Future model Sells : Directly to Customer

Mercedes-Benz, Luxury Carmaker, have made announcement about the "direct to customer" model in the month of June this year and the company had made claims that it has got nearing to 1700 plus units of customer booking via Retail of the Future model only in a beta phase since Oct 2021. The company has invested about Rs. 60 crore for this initiative and our nation, India has become the 4th market to roll out ROTF after South Africa, Sweden and Australia.

By introducing the ROTF, the company would be directly selling to its customers.

As per the carmaker, this retail initiative would offer complete transparency in the purchase process central order management, higher stock visibility and no liability for the franchise partners.

Customers would not require to pay any incidental charges for their purchase from now onwards. They would now be able to have direct access to national stock giving them higher visibility to select their desired products from varied markets, as per the company statement.

The carmaker has highlighted that, the OTF would be applicable only for new car sales and it would not need to alter the functioning of separate business lines, which include customer service, pre-owned cars as well as allied businesses.

All franchise partners of the Mercedes-Benz would require to collaborate in implementing ROTF in India, thus sharing the company's customer centric outlook as well a co-creating a future ready business model.

Managing Director and CEO of Mercedez-India, Martin schwenk, stated that, " Today, we are extremely proud to introduce the Retail of the Future in India, after successfully establishing a robust digital backbone, which would offer significant transition in our retail business.

The ROFT is a very unique customer centric model, it helps to cater to the evolving trends of the customer at the same time empowering our franchise partners by reducing significantly , both financial as well as operation risks in the market.

"ROTF is the right step in the right direction, it helps to get closer to the customers and as a result of listening to their wishes and fulfill their evolving requirement. Mercedes-Benz is the most trusted luxury brand in the nation, the company desires to set a standard towards customer centric approach, it is a definitely a new benchmark in the Franchise partners profitability and it helps introduce a new culture of competing only for the best customer experience, he stated.

Under the new retail model, the dealers would turn franchise partners. With the sales model changing, all 23 of them, in an around 95 locations and would focus more on customers " needs and wishes and they would compete to earn an incentive from OEM, the carmaker, stated.

The company has made a statement that, the customer would now be able to book a car by paying mere Rs. 50,000 and then the order completion must occur over the next 14 days. For the 1st time in our nation, India, VIN number would be confirmed with order booking thus enabling the complete transparency. For the sake of order finalization, an instant e-mail confirmation would be sent once the documents would be verified as well as confirmed with the Mercedes-Benz, as the car makes it way to the franchise partner. This process would be followed via end to end data security

Upon payment realization within the 7 days, the final invoice from Mercedes-Benz would reach the customer. The Franchise partner would deliver the car at the customers doorstep or delivery at the showroom.

Mercedes Benz stated that, it has introduced an exclusive Digital Commerce platform(DCP), an online store to book the car online.