Before the conquest of Mars

"I heard that Tesla boutique equipment can be found on the comet?"

On April 16, Tesla official wechat pushed such a message, announcing the official opening of Tesla Tmall flagship store. In the article, Tesla's propaganda team also matched a nifty copy: "Before conquering Mars, land on the comet first."

It is not uncommon for car companies to open flagship stores in e-commerce. Enter the keyword "Auto Flagship Store" in the search engine, and online sales platforms such as Chery Auto Tmall Flagship Store, Geely Auto Tmall Flagship Store and BAIC JD.COM Flagship Store will pop up on the page.

However, unlike these online stores, Tesla does not regard its Tmall flagship store as a direct channel for selling cars. According to reports, Tesla will only provide official auto parts, scheduled test drives and other products and services on Tmall, and plans to launch the official periphery in the future.

As the first direct sales brand in the industry, Tesla continues to firmly hold the vehicle sales channel in its own hands. However, this does not mean that Tesla does not sell cars online. Although there is no vehicle ordering link, Tmall flagship store provides a full range of vehicle test drive reservation service, and there are plans to broadcast live on the platform to drain vehicle sales.

"By entering Tmall, Tesla extended its online model to third-party platforms." Tesla said in its press release. In the eyes of the industry, this will be the next super factory construction and domestic model in Shanghai? 3 and model? After Y, Tesla's localization layout in China has made a further breakthrough.

Others interpret this as a subtle change in Tesla's business philosophy after it went deep into the China market, and began to "fully empower front-line executives". This is a welcome change for Tesla, which has long been criticized for "not knowing enough about the China market".

As early as six years ago, Tesla had a cooperation with Tmall, but that cooperation failed to end well. According to media reports at that time, the sales of "double 1 1" cars planned by China team was opposed by the headquarters at that time, which exposed the pain point of China team's lack of right to speak.

Don't sell cars, but you can have a look.

This Tmall flagship store is the official flagship store of Tesla China's first third-party platform, but its main purchasable goods are not cars.

According to reports, the first batch of goods on the shelves of the official flagship store are mainly exclusive accessories customized for Tesla models, such as advanced interior kits, performance pedals, and mobile phone fast charging connection boards. As of April 16, 18, the best-selling item in the store is Model? 3 physical keys at a price of 1200 RMB.

As a car company focusing on online direct car purchase and remote service, online sales are no stranger to Tesla. The breakthrough in entering Tmall this time is to expand the online model to a third-party platform, "forming a closed loop of online service for after-sales service, car service and exclusive accessories".

However, selling auto parts online is not unique to Tesla. In the Tmall car sector, think tank Jun noticed that BMW and other car companies also provided online ordering channels for installing accessories and even maintenance services in the official flagship store.

Although there is no car purchase channel, Tesla has not given up the drainage of potential consumers with the help of Tmall, a large shopping platform. In Tesla Tmall flagship store, users can make an appointment for a test drive, and the product only charges a nominal fee of 1 yuan.

In addition, Tesla also arranged a live broadcast on Tmall. It is reported that Tesla will broadcast live in eight major cities in China from April 2 1. Think tank Jun learned that Tesla has conducted many test drives and shared live broadcasts during the Spring Festival, but this time it is the "first show" on the Tmall platform.

Localized layout test water

"The opening of Tmall's official flagship store has greatly increased Tesla's user contact, which is a breakthrough in the expansion of its localization channels." Tesla said.

Tesla is not completely like a novice in the operation of Tmall flagship store. In addition to the live broadcast activities launched quickly, Tesla also adopted some other e-commerce marketing methods in its official introduction, such as April16-April 2 1 and the micro-amoy welfare of "waiting to unlock".

In general, Tesla Tmall flagship store has been on-line to make an appointment for test drive, exclusive accessories and boutique surroundings, and will continue to attract attention and drainage through marketing combination boxing such as big coffee, opening carnival and city live broadcast in the coming week.

According to Zheng Yun, senior global partner of roland berger and vice president of Greater China, with the continuous enrichment of products and functions of online flagship stores, Tesla is expected to truly build an online closed loop with users in the whole life cycle from car purchase to car use.

"will this be the construction of Shanghai super factory and domestic model? 3 and model? After Y, Tesla's localization layout in China was further deepened. " Zheng Yun said that Tesla's exploration of third-party platforms will further strengthen its performance in China.

Specifically, he analyzed that through in-depth cooperation with Tmall, with its platform influence and user traffic, Tesla is expected to usher in a new marketing breakthrough point, which will continue to deepen its brand influence and user awareness in China, especially among the new generation of Internet users.

In fact, Tesla's localized marketing layout in China has already begun. According to think tank Jun, at the end of last year, Tesla China collected internal self-media marketing plans to encourage offline sales to "develop" on various platforms, so as to achieve the maximum marketing effect at the lowest cost. It is also based on this idea that since the Spring Festival, Tesla has taken the lead in launching live broadcasts on platforms such as Tik Tok, and these factors have ushered in the popularity of China in the first quarter.

From a broader perspective, Tesla's test of water may once again lead the transformation of the entire industry. Zheng Yun believes that for domestic traditional OEMs and other new brands, the transformation will be more urgent.

"This will be another attack launched by Tesla." Zheng Yun said, "All OEMs should pay full attention to strategy and tactics, take root in their deep insight into local users, explore new retail and new marketing models that match their own brand tonality, and accelerate to get rid of the negative impact brought by the COVID-19 epidemic."

China's autonomy increased?

Opening a third-party platform is a breakthrough for Tesla. Someone familiar with Tesla China commented on this matter: "Fully authorize front-line executives."

This is not the first time Tesla has opened a store in Tmall. As early as the end of 20 14 and 10, Tesla China announced that it would enter Tmall Mall and participate in the "Double 1 1" shopping carnival. However, this activity failed to be implemented as planned.

According to media reports at that time, Tesla originally prepared the 18 model as "Double 1 1"? S the car is now in the car. After the consumer places an order and pays the full amount, the car can be "lightning picked up" in five days at the earliest. It was a good attempt, but an email from the American headquarters stopped the activity.

It is reported that the reason for being stopped is to undermine Tesla's direct sales rules. The headquarters believes that the five-day "lightning delivery" is "unfair" to other users who book in official website. The media saw the embarrassing position of Tesla China team from this incident.

"It is undeniable that this storm highlights the common problem of foreign companies entering the local market in China: when China District tries to do more local innovation, the decision-making power and discourse power in China District appear' aphasia' at some moment." Some media commented.

Since then, domestic media have paid special attention to the authority of Tesla China team. In a small-scale media exchange last year, someone asked: "Is it possible for China factory to have independent pricing power in the future?"

The response of China executives also shows the trend of Tesla's decentralization in the regional market. "Needless to say, in the future, not all pricing has been fully applied abroad for some time." At that time, Xue Juncheng, vice president of Tesla Asia Pacific, said.

It is worth mentioning that he also mentioned the "unified policy" at that time and suggested that the operation of the China team should not deviate from the gist of the headquarters. Tmall flagship store does not sell cars, which means that Tesla's self-operated platform is still the only car purchase channel.

As a car company that pioneered and successfully implemented the online direct sales model in the industry, Tesla itself has a mature self-operated online platform. Previously, in order to save costs, Musk had radically announced that "the sales method will be transformed into online sales on a global scale". Although it was not implemented in the end, we can see the strength of its online channel.

Accessories and after-sales are not Tesla's core business. Tesla's flagship store in Tmall has indeed expanded the localization channel, but this channel is not at the sales level, but at the market level.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.