It might not be that long until ordering a car online will seem just as normal as buying clothes, books or music. There is a good way to go yet, but most car buyers already spend a good bit of time in cyberspace along the “customer journey” to their new car. One building block of Porsche Holding Salzburg’s online sales ecosystem, which we support with our applications, is the module for the online reservation of vehicles – and it was for this project that the development team received a Porsche Informatik “Change Award”!
The pre-booking module was first let loose for the market launch of the Volkswagen ID.3 electric vehicle. Being able to reserve online formed an important part of the marketing concept for this car. VW initiated a global project to set up a pre-booking landscape which would allow the first customers to secure their production slot for the ID.3 exclusively online.
In the autumn of 2018, our eCommerce & Stock Tools team began developing pre-booking for Porsche Holding Salzburg – and then implemented the project in close co-creation with the specialist department in a prize-worthy development time of just four months.
Pre-booking for the VW ID.3
The solution was launched simultaneously in both Austria and seven other Holding markets, and an allocation of 1000 “First Edition” vehicles was processed. Further campaigns followed, including some for other Group brands. To date, twelve campaigns in eight countries have already sold more than 2000 pre-booking slots priced between 500 and 2000 euros.
Increasing importance during the lockdown
The first Covid-19 lockdown this spring lent extra weight to pre-booking. With dealerships being closed, online sales gained in strategic importance and online campaigns were increased in all eight countries. This means that our solution was able to contribute to the relaxation of the market following the lockdown.
The modular architecture of the application allows our pre-booking solution to be used on other platforms. For example, over the course of the last few months, we have linked the checkout module to Immediately-Available New Cars on our brand and dealer websites, to our used car exchange, DasWeltAuto, and the promotion platform, TopDealsOnline.
Thanks to web tracking, data analysis and feedback tools, we are already gaining a good number of important insights into our customers’ online purchasing behaviour. This all means that we will have already taken the first important steps once the market starts to change even more swiftly and strongly in the direction of online transactions. These findings will serve as a guideline for the further development of our online sales ecosystem.
This year the pre-booking module received the Porsche Informatik “Change Award” in the “Time-to-Market” category
