DMC Group tells us how June has been the Ducati store’s best month yet

During our latest bike webinar, we shared insight into how the motorcycle market has faired over recent months. The MCIA are forecasting registrations for the full year will be down 18% against last year, which equates to around 88,000 units vs the 107,000 last year, although there is a huge amount of positivity among retailers and OEMs that the decline might not be so significant.

We also shared insight into how retailers have been behaving during lockdown in terms of both pricing and keeping their adverts up to date and appealing to buyers. You can watch the whole webinar here to find out more, but Chris Booth, Managing Director of DMC Group shared his experiences of recent months with us in this Q&A. 

Q. Can you tell us about your set up?

A. We are solus Ducati, we have four stores which are in Preston, Manchester, Stoke and Worchester.

Q. When Lockdown happened, what did you do?

A. We noticed in early March what was happening as we deal directly with Italy a lot. Our supply stopped coming through, people in the factory in Italy were telling me how bad it was. So we knew it was coming, but the day that we got locked down there was still a lot of panic initially which I think most dealers and business owners did!

Q. How did the staff take it?

A. They were all really good but again a lot of nervousness and uncertainty. We didn’t know when we would get to reopen, how long it would go on for. Especially as motorbike dealers are very seasonal, this was coming into the season where we need to make money to get through the winter, so this was the worse timing possible for our industry.

Q. During May, there was a bit more clarity in terms of how people could operate their business. You took some really good steps forward, could you talk us through those steps you took?

A. After the initial worry, I noticed enquiries were still coming through online. I was going to furlough all staff, but made the decision to keep a couple on with myself and we decided to go for it with click and collect, virtual tours, we videoed every used bike in the store so that if we had an enquiry we could send the video.

We also did a lot of videos to reassure the public that we were doing everything possible to ensure safety for ourselves and staff. On the back of that, Ducati launched the Ducati Cares program which helped us a lot to get the message out to the consumer that they could buy a bike off us safely.

Q. What does this quarter look like for new and used sales?

A. The best month we’ve ever had previously was 1.5 million, we’ve come back in June and we are up to 2 million turnover, we’ve got 238 bikes on order, for which 193 of them are for new bikes so I’m expecting this month to hopefully get to about 2.6-2.7 million if we get everything out that we need to.

Q. In term of the enquiries, you said they didn’t really stop, did you find that it was just people browsing and speculatively enquiring?

A. Generally, the leads that we were getting have now all converted into a sale.

Q. Post lockdown you have a lot of provisions in place for people coming to the showroom, with sanitisation stations, masks and gloves etc. Do you think post lockdown more people will be buying online rather than visiting the showroom?

A. Absolutely, this has made everyone realise you don’t need a glass palace to sell motorbikes. I monitor everything and over the last two months; for 12% of new bike sales, the person didn’t visit the showroom, and for used bikes 38% didn’t. And after an initial contact, 78% of our new bikes have been sold online, and 89% of used. It shows that everything is going digital.

It’s a positive transformation in terms of trust and transparency isn’t that the consumers need to be able to trust you as a retailer and that what you are telling them is correct.

Also, I have seen as we are doing appointments, everyone that comes to see us are getting dealt with properly, they are qualified buyers and we are getting less people just coming to browse.

Watch the full webinar back, on demand here.