Mercedes-Benz rolls out new format of retailing cars in India: All you need to know

Mercedes-Benz on Friday implemented the highly customer-centric ‘Retail of the Future’ (ROTF) business model.

This ‘direct to customer’ model which was first announced in June 2021, was launched by Martin Schwenk, Managing Director and CEO and Santosh Iyer, Vice President - Sales and Marketing, Mercedes-Benz India, from the company’s Metro Auto Hangar dealership located in South Mumbai.

With ‘Retail of the Future’, Mercedes-Benz India will retain the ownership of the entire stock of cars and retail them via appointed Franchise Partners, by invoicing them directly to the customers. Mercedes-Benz will also be responsible for processing and fulfilling customer orders. With ROTF, there will be one nationally set price by the company, which will be uniform across the country.

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Focused entirely on customer convenience, ROTF brings to the Indian customers a bouquet of industry-first practices, creating a new benchmark in transparency and customer convenience, aimed towards offering the best customer experience. With ROTF, customers will not have to pay any incidental charges for their purchase anymore. In addition, the customers will now have direct access to national stock giving them higher visibility to select their desired products from across markets. Mercedes-Benz also for the first time will now offer the VIN number to the customer even during the order booking stage.

At the announcement of Retail of the Future in India, Schwenk commented, “In June 2021, we announced a disruptive retail business model which is highly customer-centric and promised a seamless, omnichannel and transparent experience to our customers.

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“We are proud to implement the ‘Retail of the Future’ in India after successfully establishing a robust digital backbone, which will support this significant transition in our retail business. ROTF is a unique customer-centric business model, which caters to the evolving trends of our customers while empowering our Franchise Partners by significantly reducing their financial and operational risks in the market. ROTF further supports our quest toward creating customer excellence as the Franchise Partners will now solely compete on providing a superlative customer experience.

“With ROTF, we have created a completely unified customer journey experience with many industry-first initiatives to its credit. For the first time in India, there are no incidental or extra charges for the customers. Customers now have direct access to Mercedes-Benz India’s national stock with a wide variety of inventory choices. ROTF is a step in the right direction in getting closer to our customers, and a result of listening to their wishes and evolving requirements. As the most trusted luxury brand in the country, we have set a new standard in customer centricity, a new benchmark in Franchise Partners’ profitability and introduced a new culture of competing only for the best customer experience,” he added.

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