The matter of a merchant on the Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo offering RMB 1.22 million yuan discount for consumers who buy Rolls-Royce vehicles has recently aroused high concern in China. In response, Rolls-Royce has expressed its support.
According to several Chinese media reports, Rolls-Royce said it had noticed the news and that the act was the personal behavior of Pinduoduo platform and the merchant, not related to the Rolls-Royce car brand.
Rolls-Royce also said that it is willing to see different attempts of e-commerce platforms and merchants for product sales and promotion under the premise of not harming consumers' interests and Rolls-Royce brand image.
Previously, a merchant at Pinduoduo selling the Rolls-Royce Phantom with a guide price of RMB 10.68 million offered RMB 1.22 million, which is only RMB 9.46 million (including consumption tax) after subsidy.
The order for this item is a deposit order, and users can initiate a group purchase by paying a deposit of RMB 99,999.
These deposits can be offset against the purchase cost, and the final payment is still 936,0001 RMB, but taxes, insurance, and license plates are to be borne by the buyer.
So far, more than 100,000 users have expressed their "desire to buy" the car.
In 2019, Rolls-Royce delivered a total of 5,152 cars to customers in more than 50 countries worldwide, up 25 percent year-on-year, with sales setting the highest sales performance in the brand's 116-year history.
With approximately 25 percent of global sales, China is once again the second-largest market for Rolls-Royce worldwide, after the United States.
Such a marketing campaign has been conducted by Pinduoduo before. In July this year, a Pinduoduo merchant launched a group buy for the Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Edition, which was 40,000 yuan cheaper than the official guide price of 291,800 yuan.
Afterwards, Tesla immediately said that there was no cooperation between the two sides, and that Tesla's official website was the only regular purchase channel for new cars, and that it had never commissioned other platforms or businesses to carry out sales activities.
