Tuesday 17 November 2015

Would you buy a used car from this vending machine?

                                                                                                                          pic: The Independent
The Independent reports that Carvana, the first complete online used-car retailer and Forbes 5th Most Promising Company, launched the world’s first, fully-automated, coin-operated car vending machine in Nashville in November.

(See how it works, on the Carvana site)

Apart from eliminating salesmen (!) and the distrust often associated with buying used-cars, this break-through initiative represents another fundamental change taking place in retailing, as buyers and sellers experiment in a desperate search for a competitive edge, and sometimes make ‘the impossible’ work in the process…

In FMCG marketing, this has to be a reminder to always think outside the category-box and our trading ‘comfort-zone’, as we seek ways of differentiating our offering, and take nothing for granted…

Speaking of which, back in Nashville, having taken possession, kicked the tyres and sniffed the exhaust, the buyer then has a seven-day “test-own” period and an option to return the car.
A potential win-win after all…

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