The biggest change is expected to come if and when consumer behaviour moves from vehicle ownership to “usership”.
Goodyear and Dunlop Tyres Australia operates three retail brands in Australia: the Beaurepaires network being primarily company-owned with 28 franchised stores; the all-franchise Goodyear Autocare chain; and Dunlop Super Dealer as a licenced brand program.
Speaking with GoAuto at this month’s Wrangler AT SilentTrac launch in Brisbane, Goodyear and Dunlop Tyres Australia vice-president of retail Scott Wood said the tyre business in Australia had “evolved into quite sophisticated retailing practices”.
“We’ve got our own online e-commerce portal now so you can buy tyres online through Beaurepaires, you’ve got Tyresales.com, you’ve got JAX now online, you’ve got Bob Jane pricing online … so to the consumer the tyre buying experience has become a lot more transparent, particularly in the pricing area,” he said.
However, Mr Wood predicted mobile tyre-fitting services to remain small-scale in Australia due to the difficulty in offering on-the-spot wheel alignment when replacing a set of four tyres.
“As much as online may continue to grow for a period, it’ll only make up I think two-to-five per cent of the Australian market,” he said.
“Consumers don’t know a lot about tyres and buying them online is a really strong commitment financially, so when they get to the store they want to know they’ve made the right choice – and you still have to go to bricks and mortar to get the tyres fitted.”
Scott Wood
Mr Wood identified consumer certainty over timing as another obstacle to online tyre purchasing.
“When they decide to buy, they really want something fixed in the next 24-48 hours,” he said.
Mr Wood highlighted consumer loyalty as paramount to the success of a tyre retailer, against an evolving technology landscape that is providing ever-increasing levels of transparency and a better-informed buying process.
“Loyalty is very, very important in the tyre industry, keeping people engaged and linked to your retail brand or shop,” he said.
“As much as people love to shop around and price check, tyre shops tend to be word-of-mouth a lot and also, if you’ve had a reasonable experience in the past, you’ll probably go back to that shop during your next purchase cycle – at least as part of your consideration.”
Having just returned to Australia after three years working in China where he was exposed to a young and fast-evolving automotive market that is quickly moving toward a shared vehicle ownership model, Mr Wood could see a time in Australia when individual consumers are no longer making the tyre purchasing decision.
“As the industry moves into usership than ownership, our customers will become the fleet owners rather than the actual driver of the vehicle,” he said.
Goodyear Asia Pacific product director of consumer tyres Jenner Powell told GoAuto the company was also closely watching the emergence of autonomous vehicle technology and assessing how this will affect the tyre purchasing process.
“If you’re a private owner, you have different requirements to a commercial owner so we’re exploring different aspects of that,” he said.
“We’re trying to understand how the future is going to shape out in terms of mobility and transportation, then looking at the best way to serve that evolution.”
Mr Wood expected the Australian market to make a relatively slow shift away from vehicle ownership compared with his recent experience in China, where he had attended numerous seminars about how the ‘usership’ model will take shape.
“The (ownership) model here is mature so it will take longer than China, where the automobile has been around for 15-20 years rather than 100 years; people there are more prepared to think differently,” he said.
“I think the next generation is going to change that. People 25 and up are still into car ownership in a big way, but I think as electric vehicles become more viable in this market and car usership comes into play, it’ll be a big change for our industry.”
By Haitham Razagui
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