Even more than before, Audi is putting customers front and center at its dealerships: with a completely new, inviting, and progressive showroom architecture, interactive digital elements, and employees to spark enthusiasm for new technologies. The Audi Progressive Retail concept provides space for customers to experience Audi products and the Audi brand in an emotional and individual way, while at the same time reflecting the brand with the four ring’s forward-looking mentality.
Instead of the traditional counter, customers are greeted by Audi Progressive Showroom employees at a large welcome table. The idea is to ensure that guests feel welcome and at ease from the moment they walk in. The consulting booths, too, are integrated into the showroom, with high-quality furniture and atmospheric lighting for a noticeably new brand experience.
“The new retail concept makes our brand strategy – with its focus on sustainability, design, and digitization in retail – tangible in a people-centered, individual way,” says Hildegard Wortmann, Member of the Board of Management for Sales and Marketing at AUDI AG. “Audi Progressive Retail will visibly transform our dealerships into an interactive space, making them important partners within the Audi ecosystem.”
Emotionalizing products and the brand
The concept is being premiered at a newly opened pilot plant in Morumbi, a district of São Paulo, Brazil. The modular Progressive Showrooms will then be rolled out gradually around the world on a voluntary basis, especially in new buildings and renovated establishments, from the start of 2023. The new concept will afford dealerships the freedom in playing with materials, colors, and contrasts to make products and the brand more emotional.
Audi has defined a selection of various elements for the new showrooms, including a stage for vehicle presentation and a lounge for consultations with customers. At digital touch points, customers can discover what the Audi ecosystem offers that goes beyond the driving experience, as well as which technologies make out Audi stand out from the competition – technologies that will help turn the brand’s models increasingly into a personal “experience device” going forward. With tools such as 3D remote consulting, personalized in-vehicle experiences, and digital touch points, customers who visit Audi partners today can already experience examples of a holistic, digitized customer journey.
Customer-centric personnel concept an important component
In the showrooms, the employees themselves are a key component of the new concept. In use since 2016, the Audi Retail Experience personnel concept is evolving in line with customers’ changing needs. As product specialists, the “Audi Experts” are now gaining new skills to inspire passion for technology and the brand, for example by providing customers with information on services related to e-mobility. In this way, each Audi Expert ensures customers can enjoy an individual shopping experience that puts them front and center.
