Red Luxury

Super luxury and expensive Lamborghinis are being displayed in Taobao City, a shopping center in Shanghai and they also went up for sale at one of China’s largest shopping website, Taobao.com on May 20.

Will anyone order a Lamborghini online? Maybe not, but it sure generates publicity!

Lamborghini’s China dealer, Shanghai Jing Pin Hong Motors, admitted, “We don’t expect people to buy Lamborghinis at Taobao. We just want to promote the brand, and Taobao is a promotional channel.”

About 3-5 different models ranging from 3 million yuan (US$460,000) to 5 million yuan (US$770,000), will be regularly featured at the Lamborghini outlet in Taobao City. Those who want to buy can opt to pay via Taobao’s website.

Lamborghini sold over 260 models in China in 2010 and the company wants to increase its presence in the China market. One way to accomplish this? Open an online store on Taobao.

While Lamborghini’s online store at Taobao has attracted over 8,000 orders, none of them have resulted in a purchase. Orders are canceled if not purchased after seven days.

The Lamborghini online store has become a destination where virtual shoppers can experience the thrill of purchasing a luxury racing car and Lamborghini is just fine with that.

“We put it online for a bit of fun, we want netizens to have the experience of ‘buying’ high end sports cars online,” explained a Lamborghini China executive.

Online shoppers agreed. “While I don’t have enough money to buy the car, it still felt great,” one enthusiastic online shopper said.

Lamborghini is not the first automaker to sell on Taobao. Auto brands such as Geely, BMW, Audi and Volvo have all been on Taobao.

Auto sales on Taobao surpassed ten million yuan (US$1.54 million) in the first five months of the year. Auto sales on Taobao is still low since marketing cars online is still relatively new in China, the company thinks it could become a trend.


[global times]
photo credit: lamborghini

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