Major tire makers quit Tmall online stores

Dunlop has become the latest one among the tire makers that closed online flagship stores on Tmall.com, a major e-commerce platform under Alibaba.

Quite a few major tire makers opened flagship stores on Tmall in 2015, including Tyreplus, Goodyear, Continental, Dunlop and Cooper tires.

Among them, Continental was the first one that left -- entering Tmall in February 2015 and quitting it only a few months later.

Japanese manufacturer Bridgestone opened Tmall flagship store in 2013, more early than other global tire giants. Yet the online store was also closed in 2016.

Statistics showed Bridgestone’s Tmall store had 2,196 followers before it was closed. Among its 43 SKUs, the best seller was 195/60R15 in size -- altogether 107 pieces for 419 yuan each on average were sold in nearly three years.

Currently, online sales account for only about 5 percent of the after-market replacement tire sales in China.

Tire giants opened Tmall flagship stores mainly for increasing brand exposure and demonstrating guide prices. Above all, they tried to match young customers’ habit. However, it has proved that the customers still prefer offline stores at least in tire shopping.