You Can Now Easily Buy A Porsche From Your Couch

Porsche rolls out plans for simple online purchasing in European countries.

In the age of the Coronavirus, there are very few things you can’t do from the comfort of your home office, which is now the official synonym for “your bed.” We can order food, talk to friends, go to work, and of course, we can online shop. Browsing Amazon is dangerous enough for those who can’t keep their hands away from the “buy now” button, but now you can buy a Porsche without even setting foot in the dealership.

Even though this concept isn’t necessarily new, Porsche has taken our current circumstances as an opportunity to grant more countries the option to buy their products contact-free. Porsche’s digital sales channel has now reached full function in 8 new countries - Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, France as well as in Poland, Slovenia and Estonia. The United Kingdom is Porsche’s next target.

The Online Channel

Porsche’s digital channel is connected to every authorized dealer in its respective country and presents customers with all their new and used car options straight through their screens. Porsche says that it is committed to a completely online and socially distanced process right up to the actual delivery of a customer’s vehicle.

A company as intensely followed as Porsche has a very long list of returning customers and dedicated regulars. During the pandemic, Porsche knew that many of those customers would be discouraged from coming back during this insane year, prompting them to fast track the development of more online sales. Luckily for them, 40 percent of all the current online customers are first-time Porsche buyers, meaning they have so far retained their loyal regulars while also spawning interest for brand new customers.

As more online sales feedback is received, Porsche says they will continue to refine the channel for optimized efficiency.

Not Just Cars

As time goes on, car manufacturers have started offering much more than just automobiles. Porsche has grown a long history of customer inclusion in its business model from Experience Centres to its Porsche Design clothing line. In its Chinese market, Porsche just introduced an additional services feature to the online channel offering the separate lifestyle products that we mentioned above.

Martin Urschel, the Vice President of Smart Mobility and Digital Sales at Porsche explains the company’s interest in this new sales engine: “We have a clear omnichannel strategy – our customers can move freely from the digital marketplace to stationary retail formats… We see enormous potential in e-commerce and intend to further strengthen and expand our worldwide digital business presence in partnership with the Porsche dealership organisation.”

Porsche aims to spread this channel to even more countries in 2021 with a focus on its used inventory, which makes up 90 percent of all cars sold through the new digital channel.

Max Larsen is the Porsche reporter at Torque News. Since he was 15 years old Max was building old cars and selling them for profit, spawning his love for cars. He has been around Porsches his entire life. His grandpa had several 911s and he owned a Porsche 944 when he was younger, which made the auto-shop class cars a lot simpler. Reading old car magazines and seeing press cars at shows gave him the passion to write and pursue the industry. He is currently studying Journalism at Western Washington University and writing for the racing team there locally. Follow Max on Torque News Porsche and on Twitter at @maxlarsencars. Search Torque News Porsche for daily Porsche news coverage by our expert automotive reporters.