UK slips to fifth place in online car sales maturity, finds BearingPoint

After leading the charge in online car sales growth in 2023, the UK has seen progress stagnate in 2024, ranking fifth in BearingPoint’s New Car Online Sales study.

Despite rapid progress in previous years, the UK now lags behind Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, and France in online sales maturity, with Germany leading the pack due to strong performance from six local brands.

The UK’s market maturity score of 29 trails just behind France at 29.4, while Italy and The Netherlands claim podium positions.

Germany, with a maturity score of 31.7, has solidified its lead, driven by domestic brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi dominating the online sales space.

Tesla continues to be the market leader in the UK, but globally, Mercedes-Benz and NIO have climbed to the top, praised for their personalised, customer-focused online sales experiences.

These brands stand out for offering seamless, consistent buying journeys, enhanced by in-car connectivity and an intuitive, fully online purchasing process.

The study highlights that nearly 50% of automotive OEMs now offer direct online configurations, compared to just 2% in 2023, signalling a major shift toward customisation and seamless online experiences.

However, the performance of OEMs varies significantly across markets, with brands like Kia and Hyundai performing better in The Netherlands and the USA, respectively, but underperforming in the UK.

Stellantis Group, in contrast, has shown strong consistency across multiple markets, benefiting from a blueprint solution introduced in 2022 for faster scaling of its online shops.

Despite some stagnation in the UK, there are standout performers. Tesla UK leads overall online sales, followed by Polestar and Land Rover.

In the pre-sales segment, BMW takes the top spot, while Tesla and Land Rover dominate online sales. Post-sales sees Polestar, Tesla, and Mercedes sharing first place.

The BearingPoint study highlights that while the online car buying experience has doubled in maturity since 2021, challenges remain in offering fully online experiences at various customer touchpoints.

As brands continue to refine their strategies, the study points to clear opportunities for further growth, especially in markets like the UK, where the pace of digital transformation has slowed.

Jonny Stephens, senior manager from BearingPoint commented: “Overall there has been some stagnation in the online experience this year, especially in the UK. However excitingly there are still leading practices from UK stores called out in the study, such as Ford’s TCO calculator or Land Rover’s online part exchange.

“We are also seeing different brands leading in the pre-sales, sales and post-sale criteria in the UK which points to clear whitespace for those leaders to invest in the rest of the journey. Outside of the UK it’s exciting to see the NIO and Mercedes local stores share the top spot this year which shows both established and new-entrant brands are pursuing leadership in online sales maturity.”

The study also scores the performance of the online shops of major OEMs overall, and for pre-sales online, sales online, and post sales online. The findings for the UK are as follows:

• UK overall online sales score – Tesla UK (1), Polestar UK (2), Land Rover UK (3).
• UK pre-sales online score – BMW (1), Polestar UK (2), Tesla UK (3).
• UK sales online score – Tesla UK (1) joint top with Land Rover (1), Toyota (3).
• UK post-sales online score – Polestar UK, Tesla UK and Mercedes were rank joint top.

BearingPoint’s New Car Online Sales report studies and benchmarks the online sales experience of vehicle brands across 9 markets (US, China, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway).  The study covers 117 online stores in those markets from the 10 leading volume brands alongside selected wildcard brands per market. The study covers 17 key touchpoints, assessing their maturity and the extent to which they can be facilitated entirely online. A given store is counted as ‘seamless’ if the vehicle can be reserved or purchased online.