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Rockar has announced plans to open a digital Jaguar Land Rover showroom in the east London’s Westfield Stratford shopping centre.
This will be Rockar’s third digital site following the opening of Hyundai outlets in Bluewater and Westfield Stratford in 2014. Rockar was launched in 2013 by ex-Dixon Motors and a Jamjar boss Simon Dixon who plans to open a total of eight stores in prime shopping centres, across up to six franchises.
Rockar Jaguar Land Rover Stratford opens in early October but will be preceded by an accompanying online store which goes live on 7 September. JLR is the first premium car brand to offer fully-online purchasing. The addition brings JLR’s revamped dealer network up to 201sites.
The new store will be staffed by brand ‘angels’ who JLR described as “product experts that are paid to serve not to sell”. The staff can offer advice on models, show colour samples and interior leathers, help customers use the in-store Rockar system and show them around the six vehicles on display.
Once visitors have gathered the information they need they can complete their purchase on the Rockar website – either in-store or at home.
Buyers not visiting the store can use the website to browse models, book test drives, specify their car, arrange finance, trade-in an existing model and complete the purchase.
Supporting the store and website is a dedicated service centre based a mile away in Bromley-by-Bow which will prepare new cars for delivery and undertake service, maintenance and warranty work.
“It’s an exciting time for Jaguar Land Rover, we have a range of new models aimed at new customer groups and as such we are looking at how we can best serve our expanding customer base. Our retailers are investing £1bn in the UK network, and our partnership with Rockar represents some of the incremental new, innovative solutions that we are introducing to engage and serve our customers,” said Jeremy Hicks, managing director of Jaguar Land Rover UK.
Talking about the latest addition to the Rockar network, CEO Simon Dixon said: “At Rockar we’ve turned new car buying on its head and created a whole new way to buy a car. Our research has revealed that customers in today’s digital age are looking for an easier way of buying cars, more aligned to how they shop for their clothes, food and gadgets. Rockar’s recent success has proved this research with over 60% of its customers now buying online.”