Citroen is gearing up to sell cars online in the UK from next year - and the new customer experience could well include fixed prices designed to give buyers a fair deal without any haggling.
The French manufacturer has been focusing on its ‘Advanced Comfort’ ethos - which is designed to extend beyond the sort of compliant suspension for which the company is known to incorporate everything from the customer experience to the cars’ cabin designs.
Now the company’s boss Linda Jackson has revealed to Auto Express that one element of Advanced Comfort will be a simpler, less pressurised purchase process, where customers will be able to choose and configure their cars - either to order or from dealer or central stock - and then finance them and put down a deposit online, without a visit to a showroom.
“E-commerce is being rolled out in selected markets, and it will eventually get to the UK - hopefully next year,” Jackson revealed. “Not everybody wants to buy a car online but some do. You can look at the car, configure the car, get your finance, sort your deposit and then you go into the dealer to get your test drive. In that way, there is still a link to the dealer.”
Jackson also revealed that a key part of the process will be fixed prices designed to be as good as those achievable in negotiations with dealer representatives. “The online sales have been designed to be very transparent for the customer - because when you’re selling online, your prices tend to be very obvious,” she said. “It removes this concern that we get back from customers that they don’t want to negotiate on price. Not having to haggle is part of Citroen Advanced Comfort, absolutely.
“You’ll pay the same price you could have got at the dealer, so it’s totally transparent, and also you have the possibility to get a quote on your existing car, which is less fixed. But the price for the new car is totally visible. We call it ‘Fair pricing’, where you get a clear price and you don’t have to negotiate and that’s it. It’s quite open. We’re testing this idea, because it’s completely different and we have to work it through the dealer networks to make sure they’re onboard with it.”
If Citroen does push through the fixed prices into UK showrooms, it will be the first mainstream manufacturer to do so. Renault’s budget brand Dacia has used fixed prices as a key marketing strategy since it arrived in the UK in 2013, but the French parent firm has retained scope for discounts and haggling on its line-up.
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