MoU: BMW and Alibaba strategic partnership in Beijing

On October 26, Alibaba, the largest online trading platform, and BMW, the well-known car manufacturer that also includes Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, signed the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) for a strategic partnership in Beijing. The goal is to ensure that digitalization can become part of BMW’s business process in China, in this way sellers will have the opportunity to offer to their customers a digital experience both online and offline. 

According to the MoU, the two brands will launch the first online sales and services business. This partnership shows that BMW is moving towards a digital transformation. It is the first car manufacturer to use ABOS (Alibaba Business Operating System), a unique service to support businesses with digitalization. With this system, BMW and its dealerships will be able to give a boost to the digital transformation of dealer network in China. In this way, Chinese customers will be able to take advantage not only of premium services, but also of personalized and convenient ones. 

The two members have established a new standard for digitalization upgrades in the automotive industry. With the help of Alibaba and its online platforms, BMW and MINI customers will be able to buy cars, sign up as members of the community to take advantage of the benefits and book different services online, of course they will always get help from sellers. 

Jet Jing, Vice President of Alibaba Group and Secretary General of Enterprise Service for Alibaba Digital Economy, said: “As one of the most innovative international premium automakers, BMW is an industry leader with outstanding products and services. Now BMW is once again at the forefront of digital transformation, becoming the first auto manufacturer to leverage Alibaba Business Operating System (ABOS). This system will help accelerate the digital operations across BMW’s business segments, aiming to provide end-to-end customer-centric services throughout the product lifecycle and high-quality growth by expanding, connecting and serving customers in a more efficient way”. 

These are the words of Jochen Goller, president and CEO of BMW in China: “As one of China’s leading tech enterprises, Alibaba has unique competencies in terms of digital technologies, large scale customer platforms and channels as well as targeted consumers operations. We are delighted to join hands to create holistic online-to-offline digital brand experiences for our Chinese consumers, and at the same time increase our portfolio of digital products and services”. 

The collaboration between the two “giants” will focus on marketing, channels, brand care, services, technological information and end-to-end operations. With the principle of “complementary benefits and win-win cooperation” both companies will work hard in order to achieve a full cooperation using their own resources.