“Smart Buy Suzuki” Offers Online Motorcycle Purchase

[advrider]

In so many ways, the future is now, thanks to Internet shopping bringing the marketplaces of the world to our door. Now, you can order your next new motorcycle online.

If you live in France, and want a Suzuki, that is.

You’ve probably ordered everything from motorcycle gear to pet care supplies to dinner on the internet. Some small electric motorcycle companies without an established dealer network will ship you a bike you buy on their website. But now, one of the big players jumps into the ecommerce pool. Suzuki France offers their entire lineup of motorcycles for online ordering through “Suzuki Smart Buy.”

It’s not exactly like ordering a motorcycle off of Amazon, however. It’s still a vehicle that needs to be licensed and registered. Taxes are a consideration, as well. But the Suzuki France website will take your deposit and put you in touch with a dealer. That dealer will finalize the sale and then deliver the bike to you.

All of us very busy people (and introverts) might appreciate less opportunity for human contact. There’s also the sales problem: if you know what you want and what you want to pay for it, why do we have to go through the sales rigamarole?

But there’s the rub: sometimes we don’t know what we want. There’s no way to sit on a bike, on the internet. You can’t test ride a bike online. The color of a motorcycle rarely comes through a screen the way it sparkles in person, on a sunny day.

So far, Suzuki Smart Buy does not replace France’s dealer network. You can still go to a dealer in person, look at your options, sit on some bikes, and talk to a salesperson. But is this the way the world is going? Will more manufacturers offer full online sales? 

Some manufacturers already demand that customers put a deposit on bikes (especially limited editions) online, but a fully online sales experience seems both a long way off and a bad idea. Plenty of us have taken delivery of a motorcycle (or other durable good) and found a flaw, or warranty issue, or other defect. Fully online sales might make that process even more difficult.

Perhaps something like a traveling dealer would be a good solution. We will still need to touch a motorcycle in person, especially when we are new to the sport and we don’t know exactly what we’re looking for.

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