Ford to Launch Online Sales This Month

Ford is to offer online car buying this month when it starts a direct sales operation from its website.  The omni-channel auto retail specialist, Rockar, have set up the operation and systems.

Initially Ford is soft launching the project with a limited number of vehicles. However, the full range of cars with full customer configurability will come online later. Buyers will be able to arrange their trade-in through Ford’s website when choosing their new car.  Customers can either have the car delivered or collect it from a retailer, according to Ford Marketing director, Lisa Rankin.

Mrs. Rankin said: “The retailer will handle the last mile and there will be a handling fee. The online sales launch will coincide with the opening of Ford’s first direct sales outlet, in Manchester’s Arndale centre. This is expected to open on 16 July.  The concession within Next, like the online sales business, has been set up by Rockar but is fully run by Ford as a direct sales business.  The showroom in Next will not be part of Trust Ford, the manufacturer’s own retail group.

“The aim for the Next site is to be an experiment for us. It is not a pre-cursor to wholesale change.  We have talked to the Ford Dealer Council about this and explained it’s a one-off to see how things go.  We haven’t set a deadline by when we will judge it, we aren’t even 100% sure how it is going to operate.  There are metrics that we will monitor such as footfall, leads, test drives and so forth.  We are under no illusion that it will be straightforward.”