Customers across Europe have lived through the limitations of standard OEM experiences in online purchase and the disconnect to the physical experience in the showroom, where brand consistency was rarely given. That said, the gap between customer expectations and the realities offered by OEMs grew significantly.

The expected adaptation, simplicity and individualisation of experiences at the discretionary choice of the customer as to which channel to use for the journey are miles away from these expectations today. This includes the uniqueness of each individual in light of their cultural background, life and value concepts, and their needs.

smart has built a data architecture that enables the anticipation of these personalised needs and interests to personalise the experience down to the vehicle itself.

For decades, the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of the automotive industry have been selling cars through dealers. With the rising expectation of online shopping, OEMs are seeking to provide the options customers demand these days. Currently they are missing out on seamless experiences up to the physical outlet, real-time data about their customers’ purchasing habits and a means to enable holistic customer experiences, loyalty and trust. With the rapid digitisation of the automotive industry, the way is paved for D2C approaches. Customers are demanding purely digital-driven purchasing experiences and smart is now positioned to meet that need.

smart, was ready to reposition itself as a source of fully digitised and electric vehicles. But why stop at a product reinvention when you can revolutionise everything about auto sales at the same time? The brand needed a data-driven e-commerce experience to bring its new, fully electric SUV #1 and other products to market beyond the usual online sales platform tied to a traditional dealership model. The ambition is to make the car shopping experience easier and personalised to each customer by implementing a D2C model including a fully digital-driven buying experience where the customer chooses the journey and data offers relevant personalisation.

Customers’ needs are changing faster than ever. The ambition: To offer them an intuitive purchasing experience for a car as unique as their preferences. For this, smart needed data at the core that it could use to drive innovation, create new products and personalise the way each smart customer configures and uses their car.

E-commerce has become a standard fixture in consumers’ lives, so smart wanted to create something innovative, flexible and hyper-personalised that could respond to changing habits. Instead of forcing users through a traditional linear journey, smart wanted a solution that could keep up with the more circuitous reality of how people make their purchases.

smart shaped its direct sales business model by initiating the potential for future customer engagement informed by data. Insights can be used to expand offerings such as extended insurance coverage for travel, as well as to help make key decisions about marketing, sales, supply chain and distribution, lead management and production. Behind the design of smart’s digital ecosystem is a desire to reflect people’s needs for e-commerce to adapt to the non-linear nature of how shopping decisions are made: with multiple tweaks along the way or speaking to friends or doing further research.

smart started down the road to a direct sales model built around online purchase options with access to agents across European Mercedes-Benz dealerships, which would allow customers to switch seamlessly between online and offline experiences.

smart’s aspiration: Making purchasing a car as simple as buying a T-shirt.

Users should be able to customise their preferred car, see similar vehicles ready in stock or search stock directly to choose from cars currently available. They can check tech specs, compare variants, and save and share their favourite options. When they are ready to do more than browse, they can book a test drive, explore finance options and eventually purchase their chosen car. Help is available via smart’s Customer Engagement Centre (CEC), with easy contact via phone, e-mail, Facebook, Instagram, X or WhatsApp.

The enablement of this vision was the execution of the platform spanning e-commerce, marketing automation, a customer data platform, CRM and a headless frontend. Taking a greenfield approach, the company’s core objective is to continually enhance the platform. A robust architecture with decoupling and a composability pattern puts data at the core to help smart understand its customers and anticipate their needs, resulting in a seamless and personalised user experience.

A business model built in tech.

The most important business KPI was to deliver a commerce platform within only 2.5 years to enable the business model in time for the launch of the new car.

In addition, in order to sell cars without customers having been able to experience the car physically in a store, the digital experience had to live up to the brand, convincing them to purchase the car online.

The new platform, built from scratch, features advanced customisations, multi-medium customer service and connections to offline experiences such as test drives. Users can trigger a purchase at any point and complete it entirely online, resulting in a seamless, immersive experience.

The commerce platform leverages solutions from Adobe, SAP and Salesforce in the backend and a custom, serverless, cloud-native frontend for greater flexibility.

Results 12 months post lauch, which exceeded smart’s expectations:

a. Pre Orders - 6.318

b. Order intake - 1.548

c. Website traffic - 3.004.223 sessions

d. Newsletter subscriptions - 32.838

e. A real seamless end-to-end and online-offline connected experience journey, enabling a fully digital purchase including leasing (no paperwork).