New E-Commerce Products From Continental

The tyre industry is faced with a new method of doing business: e-commerce. Continental has developed a new product that enables smaller customers to check stock availability and order product at a time to suit him. Called ContiContact, it is essentially an electronic catalogue giving information on product and prices in real time and is available to any dealer who has a PC and a modem.

ContiContact is designed to complement, not replace, traditional methods of ordering and Continental will continue with its EDI and call centre operations; the new service is part of Continental’s desire to be known as “a company that is easy to do business with”. It has been on trial with selected customers for a year and is now ready to roll out to a wider customer base. Continental has also introduced e-billing, which allows customers with internet access to log on to a website where they can view or download their invoices.

The advantages are space and time saving (Continental can archive invoices for customers if required) and less chance of mistakes, lost invoices etc. The system is totally secure and records are stored electronically at two separate locations, in case of accidents..