LEAD IN DIGITAL - Our mission to revolutionize the digital world

When I took over my role at Mercedes-Benz, I knew that we were heading into a future that would transform our company into something very different – a future based on radical digitalization that would turn all our assumptions of what a car manufacturer is and does upside down. We made a bold statement to our customers and to the market: 

We want to be 100% digital and offer the ultimate customer experience at every single touchpoint.

For us in the IT Marketing & Sales department this is quite a challenge: how can we deliver a customer experience that is as impressive as our cars – whilst being 100% digital?

It is with great pleasure that I share with you in this article some insights on how my team around the globe is mastering this radical digitalization and contributing to our ambitions and goals.

We are moving the exclusive experience – that our customers know from our cars – into the digital world.

First of all, understanding our digital ecosystem requires an understanding of our customer’s needs. We have noticed a fundamental shift in our customers’ behavior during the last years: nowadays, 90% of our customers start their sales journey purely online, meaning that they come informed to our dealerships. For us, this means shifting the experience our customers know from our cars into the digital world: more digital services, and an even more “wow” online journey. Because convenience means: Buying a car should be as simple as buying a book.

A milestone in our digital customer journey are our new global online stores.

The stores, which are currently being rolled out around the world, offer our customers an even more convenient e-commerce experience with completely new functions. The 360° view inside and outside of the vehicle, gives the customer a first visual impression of their new car and we are very proud of the integration of Mercedes Pay, our online payment solution, to complete the customer journey by making online reservations and down payments easier than ever.

Besides, the stores allow our customers to instantly see pricing and financing options and seamlessly connect with their local dealers after a search, based on preferences and location.

You can give it a try for yourself – our stores will be available in more than 30 countries by the end of 2022. We already rolled them out in France, Italy, Turkey, Singapore, Indonesia and many more countries. 

The upgrade of the future digital experience doesn’t stop here: it continues after the purchase. The Mercedes me app, for example, is the perfect guide through our Mercedes-Benz digital ecosystem. It allows our customers to be connected with their cars, wherever they are – as well as to try out and subscribe to additional services.

 More than 8 million customers worldwide use the Mercedes me ecosystem.

On behalf of all our teams I can say that we are extremely proud of the Mercedes me ecosystem – and how well it is received by our customers across the globe. We count more than 8 million users and the service is already activated in more than 90% of all new Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

We are the revolution behind the revolution.

It is important to constantly rethink the status quo – in the online & offline world. After all, Mercedes-Benz is built on constant reinvention. The pioneering spirit is part of our corporate culture and heritage. We constantly work on new ideas, products, and technologies to test the limit of what is possible – and to reach for the stars. 

One thing that has helped us in IT meet the challenge as a team, but also as individuals, is identifying the purpose of everyone in this huge transformation effort: We want to run and transform Mercedes-Benz.

I am very proud that the ideas and projects in the IT Sales & Marketing team are the driving force to reach our goal: to become 100% digital at all customer touchpoints.

It gives me great pleasure every day to rethink and challenge the status quo together with my global team. That’s why we all are here, following constantly our mission to create an outstanding digital ecosystem to excite customers every day and engage them with the brand and something unique which they cannot experience elsewhere.