Russian BMW aficionados can now pre-order online the brand’s new flagship BMW X7 – a model which will be made available at dealers only next spring. Buyers may go online to specify the desired type and features of the car, choose the nearest dealer, and pre-pay 150,000 rubles (a little less than $2,300 at the current exchange rate).
This pre-order system has been made available in Russia – following the USA, Canada and China – through a partnership with Yandex.Checkout, the B2B branch of Yandex.Money.
BMW Group Russia and Yandex.Checkout launched a similar system for MINI cars in August this year.
Yandex.Checkout also works with Tesla and Renault. “Since the start of Renault online showroom, 19,500 cars have been sold due to May 2019,” Oksana Sherr, Head of Foreign PR & Communications at Yandex.Checkout, told East-West Digital News.
Online orders of new cars are rapidly gaining popularity in Russia, according to the company: “The number of customers making online payments for car pre-orders via Yandex.Checkout in October 2018 has increased 14 times year-on-year.”
“These statistics show Russians’ growing confidence in e-commerce. More customers are ready to buy luxury and expensive products online. We believe that online platforms will become the main distribution channels for high-end products, particularly in the automotive industry,” commented Dmitry Karmishin, Sales Director at Yandex.Money.
