Conventional wisdom says that offline purchasing is inconvenient but immersive while online purchasing is fast but transactional. However, given tech advances, post-COVID consumer expectations, and the sheer size of e-commerce, shouldn’t we give our online shoppers more than just convenient purchasing? This is especially true for car brands, whose online offerings are far from inspiring. We wanted to give the millions who search ‘BMW’ on e-commerce every year a memorable experience that would re-shape how they see the brand. BMW’s “Convenience Store” was a category-first that redefined the brand experience for car brands online and car purchasing in general.

China leads the world in online purchasing, with 52.1% of all retail sales happening online. E-commerce is so dominant because the platforms aren’t just for buying anymore. Consumers go to Tmall, China’s biggest platform, to discover new and exclusive products, be entertained, join communities, and engage with friends and celebrities. On average, consumers spend 11.7 minutes PER DAY in the Tmall ecosystem. BMW had a Tmall store – but like every other car brand, BMW only had a basic store that mainly sold car accessories. Thus, BMW was missing an opportunity to engage the 863 million active users going to Tmall to explore and spend. The brief was to transform the BMW store into a destination that matched consumers’ new Tmall behaviors. The objectives were to increase traffic to the store, grow the BMW Tmall store community and build brand affinity.

The starting point was simple – why not sell cars on Tmall? After all, the ultimate convenience is making it easy to buy a car, not just accessories. But selling wasn’t enough. We needed to build an experience that was only possible online – a flagship car buying experience that combined disruptive convenience with disruptive experience. Car buying convenience was defined by local and electric car brands’ easy-to-access downtown shops. Thus, disruptive convenience would be buying a car without stepping foot into any dealership. Good experience was defined by the luxury brands on Tmall, showcasing their products with glossy videos and celebrity endorsements. Thus, disruptive experience would be to focus on our car lovers’ wishes instead of only the products. Taken together, BMW could disrupt car buying and luxury e-commerce conventions to lead a new way to buy.

To achieve disruptive convenience, we analyzed the traditional car buying journey to identify the pain points and must-haves. Tmall’s cutting edge technology was then used to create this journey fully online. For the disruptive experience, we probed the hearts of car lovers. First and foremost, they were dying to get their hands on BMW’s limited-edition models. And, they wanted more than a car, but also a lifestyle: 27% asked for branded apparel and 22% wished for branded get-togethers. The plan: Technology for convenience x immersive BMW universe for experience. Finally, how do we make sure every BMW purchase intender knows about our offering? We told them as they were searching for offline dealerships in China’s top lifestyle platforms! For instance, when consumers searched for BMW dealerships in China’s #1’s mapping app, they saw the BMW Tmall shop instead.

Two weeks before the launch, a teaser by BMW’s brand ambassador, Jackson Yee, was released across social media. It generated huge anticipation, with over 1 million re-posts. Eight days later, BMW-themed apparel and collectibles were put online, creating even bigger buzz. The day before the event, Jackson Yee unveiled all BMW Convenience Store’s services and activities in a launch video. Once opened, consumers enjoyed the all new “Door-2-Door” service: book a doorstep test drive, pay, and schedule delivery all without leaving the couch. Buyers could customize their purchase with Tmall exclusive colors and even gold-plated hub caps! Consumers could interact with the cars and the brand at livestreaming events. And real-time auctions sold rare BMW models, which were snapped up within seconds. The BMW-themed collectibles also drove fans wild, most selling out in seconds. Finally, a pop-up event in Shanghai let consumers physically immerse in the virtual Convenience Store universe.

The Convenience Store surpassed both brand and community building objectives. The launch campaign achieved 1.9 billion impressions, 221 million video views and 4 million unique visitors to the Convenience Store (400% increase from the previous e-commerce campaign). It got people raving about the BMW brand, with ‘intelligent’, ‘unique’, ‘leading’ and ‘luxury’ as the top keywords. And 153,000 new members joined the BMW Tmall community, more than doubling the number of followers and creating a solid base to launch further innovations. And even though the concept was new to consumers, the launch generated 2400+ new leads and 60 new car deposits in just a few days. From making car buying easy to immersing consumers in BMW love, the category-first BMW Convenience Store re-defined both what consumers should expect from car brands on e-commerce and how cars should be sold.

Two disruptions inspired this work – one compelled action and the other helped us leap ahead. The first is disruption in how consumers buy cars. Local and electric car brands were making the dreaded car buying process more convenient with sleek downtown stores. Meanwhile, BMW was still trying to attract consumers to their suburban dealerships. This made BMW feel outdated and tedious. The second disruption is in e-commerce. Major luxury brands such as Gucci and Hermès were entering Tmall, offering both products and experiences. It was working, with e-commerce luxury sales more than doubling each year. Suddenly, consumers were willing to spend large amounts online if the technology and experience were in place. In fact, 21% of car buyers already wanted to buy a car fully online. We drew from these disruptions to create the BMW Convenience Store: maximize the convenience x give a memorable luxury experience fully on e-commerce.