BMW to dealers: Make digital buying a ‘seamless experience'

As BMW unfurls a fleet of next-generation electric vehicles, it will not commit to an online-only sales model pioneered by EV juggernaut Tesla, BMW of North America CEO Sebastian Mackensen told dealers at the make meeting on Saturday.

But shifting consumer trends in the age of Amazon requires making the "digital part of the customer journey" as frictionless as possible, he said.

"It doesn't matter what the customer chooses as an avenue to purchase a vehicle — is it first physical, is it first online?" Mackensen told Automotive News after the meeting. "We have to make sure if you want to purchase a BMW, you get a seamless experience from ... the manufacturer website to a car dealer website to your final purchase."

BMW's digital approach to car-buying is drivetrain-agnostic, said Shaun Bugbee, executive vice president of operations.

"We are building a process that is customer-driven ... and it doesn't matter if it's an M-car or full-electric," Bugbee said.

Mackensen touched upon the issue on retailers' minds at the meeting.

He complimented dealers on their resilience and flexibility in dealing with limited inventories resulting from the global supply chain shortages.

"We told [the dealers] that we will continue to manage through that as good as we can," Mackensen said. "Some of it you can influence, others you can't."

The company also used the meeting to acknowledge the other new auto industry supply chain wrinkle of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Mackensen said his message was: "We will work around that, and we will focus on bringing as many customers into our vehicles as possible."

The CEO also reminded dealers that being nimble is "part of the game."

"We need on both sides to ... adapt to changes," he said, "to get the best result out of whatever the situation is."