Subaru moves to dealerless shopping

Subaru has broken the car buying mould by having its entire lineup available for sale online. 

While other makers have offered similar schemes and low-volume seller Tesla also sells its stable on the web, Subaru becomes the first big brand to put all of its new cars into the online space. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for what Subaru has in store across the next few years.

The move follows other initiatives by the Japanese maker to adapt to changing needs from customers when buying or servicing a car, with Subaru recently trialling a servicing and retail front at a shopping centre in Werribee, Victoria – both quickly turning into a raging success.

“Not everyone wants to walk into a dealership, whether that’s for buying a car or having it serviced,” Subaru Australia Managing Director Colin Christie told Drive.

Subaru first tried on-line sales with the BRZ six years ago but now its full line-up of cars - the BRZ, Impreza, WRX, Liberty, Levorg, XV, Outback and Forester - can be customised from model variants to paint and options online before being purchased. The process can also provide a price for trade-ins, though that and the delivery process is still carried out at one of 140 dealerships located around Australia.

However, Christie says the brand will soon expand further with a mobile app and full to-your-door services.

“Mobile test drive will roll out nationally in 2019. The next step is mobile sales and we’ve got 10 in pilot right now. We’ve got a new software tool were trialling and if you like the 'buy and build' concept online we’re bringing that into an iPad solution, and allowing the dealer to transact it themselves,” he said.

“If that works and when that works someone can bring a car to your house to test drive and transact it end-to-end in your home. You’ll have the car delivered to you and the hand-over process in your home, and that to me is the next big one.”

On the surface, it would appear that Subaru is beginning a slow phase-out of traditional dealerships but Christie says it’s anything but that, and that its network will remain critical to success.

“Looking at how you minimise the cost base and do you need these massive dealerships, we’ve been very mindful over the last ten years not to ask for money from our dealers and invest in its people rather than a bigger glass box," he said.

“For us, it’s about the customer experience and engaging with customers at the dealer, online space or in the shopping centre - wherever it is. But I don’t see a future without a network and they play a pivotal role. Nine times out of ten you want to experience the product and see it and we need that network.

“Not everyone will move to a shopping centre but for some, it will be the way to buy a car.”

For those that do, it might be the low-pressure environment that's appealing – still speaking with an expert as opposed to ticking boxes on a website, but not feeling pushed into sales. The idea is backed up by data Subaru has collected from its shopping centre store, where salespeople are paid a base salary plus commissions based on positive feedback rather than sales targets – just one of many different ideas being trialled to find the Goldilocks formula in today’s retail environment.

“It’s the people inside the store, they are completely different, and they are remunerated differently and we’re also looking at how we service customers differently," Christie added.

“We’re actually trialling different models for remuneration and one of the ideas is they are on a fixed salary and get remunerated based on customer experience, and if you look at the Werribee store it has one of the highest feedback ratings of them all.”