Chinese carmaker Geely on Friday started online sale of cars which will be directly delivered to buyers as the country continues to grapple with the deadly coronavirus outbreak. Car sales, like numerous our businesses, have been badly hit since the outbreak of the deadly virus three weeks ago.
Geely's decision to start online sales of its vehicles is in a bid to boost the stagnating sales of cars. A number of other carmakers too have started promoting cars online given that the health crisis has once again escalated which has prompted the authorities to warn people to stay away from public places.
Geely tries to boost sales
Geely in s statement said that customers can visit the company's website, choose cars, customize them and place orders directly online. Interestingly, the carmaker is also arranging for test drives for potential customers. The company will be arranging test drives for the prospective customers directly from their home in coordination with local dealers of Geely.
A Geely spokesperson said that promoting online sales will help the company directly reach customers through its sales and marketing team. The company is in fact trying to use this as an opportunity to reach out to potential customers and help them in building an experience which they can use in future too while buying cars.
Geely had earlier partnered with the likes of JD.com, Tmall and Suning.com to sell its vehicles. However, this is the first time that the company has taken the initiative to sell cars directly through its website.
Will sales be hit in China once again?
China is the world's largest market for cars but sales have been slowing for a while now. To add to the woes, the coronavirus outbreak has further hit the auto market with most carmakers having halted production, sales and deliveries of cars in China. According to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers nationwide sales of cars is likely to slump 10% in the first half of the year and 5% for the whole year if at all the pandemic is contained before April.
Geely is one of China's most popular car brands and is also gaining prominence globally because of its investments in Daimler and Volvo. The company said that its February production has been almost a third of its usual monthly output. Moreover, sale of passenger cars plummeted almost 92% compared with the same period in the first 16 days of February.
Geely said that 90% of its workers will be returning to work by the end of this month. A number of other carmakers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz too have been promoting vehicle sales online. Tesla has always been promoting sales online. Given this situation, it seems Geely is taking the right step by going online to boost car sales.
