Royal Enfield selling on Amazon

[ToSlow]

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Wondering if they have success if others will follow?

This is a copy and paste

Royal Enfield has been doing very well as of late. In the first half of 2025, the Indian manufacturer set another sales record, selling more than 500,000 motorcycles globally, an increase of 17.3% (according to MotorcyclesData.com). Under the umbrella of Eicher Motors, the brand has released several new models and moved outside its traditional markets.

But now, the company is trying a new method to sell its motorcycles. Royal Enfield is going digital. After announcing it would make its motorcycles available on an Indian e-commerce site called Flipkart, Royal Enfield is branching out to a well-known global e-commerce company to sell their motorcycles. That company is none other than Amazon.

According to NDTV, Royal Enfield will make its Royal Enfield Classic 350, Hunter 350, Bullet 350, Meteor 350, and Goan Classic 350 models available for purchase on Amazon’s site, but apparently only in 5 Indian cities (for now?). While a range of 350cc models will be available, Royal Enfield has not made its larger-displacement machines available digitally. At least for now, Indian buyers of models like Himalayan 450, Guerrilla 450, Scram 440, and the 650cc range, including models like Continental GT650, Interceptor 650, will have to make their purchases in the traditional way, at a dealership.

Manufacturer And Dealer Support​

According to the manufacturer, its collaboration with Amazon India will result in flexible payment choices and will make it easier for potential customers to buy its motorcycles. After the online sale, deliveries and after sales service will be managed by the dealership chosen by the customer. Of course, Amazon India will offer other Royal Enfield branded products like accessories, riding gear, and other merchandise.

 

[TwistedKestrel]

If traditional dealers are still doing assembly, PDI and delivery then this just sounds like Amazon is stealing their lunch. I think most NA dealers would simply refuse to "collaborate" and it would cost them all of the ground they've gained here.

So of course they'll try it

 

[Lightcycle]

All depends on how much Amazon is taking a cut on.

Seems to me the Amazon involvement is just an ordering/payment front-end to the dealership experience. When I buy a motorcycle at the dealership, it takes at least two trips to the store - first visit to put a deposit down and the second visit to pick up the bike after its been prepped and PDIed and to sign the bill of sale.

The Amazon front-end just eliminates the first visit. After ordering/payment, you pick which dealership you want to complete the purchase process.

If the Amazon's commission for each sale is minimal, the dealerships get huge exposure to the online retail crowd while spending very little for marketing. Also eliminates the salesguy's pain of trying to get the customer back into the shop to close the sale, as the website is open 24/7 to complete the order at the customer's convenience. They get to capitalize on those 2AM impulse purchases. They're basically an Amazon fulfillment centre and get to reap the benefits of the follow-on service and parts/gear sales, which for most shops is where the real bread and butter comes from.

Also doesn't take away walk-in customers who like to touch and feel the merchandise before shelling out their rupees.

Seems like a smart move for all involved.

 

[adri]

They get to capitalize on those 2AM impulse purchases.
(...)
Seems like a smart move for all involved.

I paraphrased your post a little bit, but, on those two points, keep in mind, 20% of all amazon purchases are returned...

I don't know what dealerships are like in India, but I know in Toronto most shops barely have enough space for their inventory plus customer inventory. If crates start arriving and no one is coming to pick them up because the customer sobered up and changed his mind the next day, it's going to make problems.

I think the bigger problem is that it takes away one more revenue source from the dealer. They aren't going to make the margin on the vehicle sale. They're just going to get the PDI & assembly... but that's also going to make a lot of logistical and labour work receiving, uncrating, dealing with storing and removing crates on vehicles they didn't make any margin on, to only make PDI and assembly.

The way I see it the dealers might end up getting a lot less milk, for basically the same amount of squeeze?

 

[Mad Mike]

I paraphrased your post a little bit, but, on those two points, keep in mind, 20% of all amazon purchases are returned...

I don't know what dealerships are like in India, but I know in Toronto most shops barely have enough space for their inventory plus customer inventory. If crates start arriving and no one is coming to pick them up because the customer sobered up and changed his mind the next day, it's going to make problems.

I think the bigger problem is that it takes away one more revenue source from the dealer. They aren't going to make the margin on the vehicle sale. They're just going to get the PDI & assembly... but that's also going to make a lot of logistical and labour work receiving, uncrating, dealing with storing and removing crates on vehicles they didn't make any margin on, to only make PDI and assembly.

The way I see it the dealers might end up getting a lot less milk, for basically the same amount of squeeze?

You can’t return everything that Amazon offers - their marketplace items are sold by Amazon but fulfilled by vendors on their terms.

As for dealers losing out… no trars from me. If the dealer was providing the right value and experience to local buyers, who would use Amazon? Dealers also benefit by extending reach, a rider in Marathon might not buy a new RE because the trip to Toronto multiple times isn’t worth it. Buy online, go once and the dealer has a small piece of biz he never had.

If the dealer is good to the customer after sale, he has a new long term revenue opportunity.

 

[adri]

If the dealer was providing the right value and experience to local buyers, who would use Amazon?

Who would use Amazon? You're kidding right? lol

First, almost everyone in Toronto. Because Toronto is 45 minutes to 1 hour and 6 minutes from Toronto, so even though I have a Kawasaki dealer in my city, I can't get to my Kawasaki dealer without a minimum 2 hour to 2.5 hour investment. That's why I own six motorcycles, and none of them are Kawasakis. I'm not going there.

Second, almost everyone who doesn't want to come to Toronto. Because if you thought it took a long time to get from Toronto to Toronto, imagine how long it takes from everywhere else to get to their nearest dealer in Toronto!

But at the end of the day, that still isn't enough, is it?

Because last week I wanted to buy a book, and I live 10 minutes from Yorkdale Mall where there's a great Indigo book store the size of my city block. So anyway, I ordered the book on Amazon, same price, it came to my door by the time I woke up the next morning.

Because saying "if the retailer was good, no one would use Amazon" in 2025 is crazy. We have great retailers, we use Amazon anyway. In Canada, Amazon sells over a quarter million items every single day. I bet a lot of them are sold by great retailers but people don't care. Is it a good thing? Probably not. But it's reality.

 

[Lightcycle]

I think the bigger problem is that it takes away one more revenue source from the dealer. They aren't going to make the margin on the vehicle sale. They're just going to get the PDI & assembly... but that's also going to make a lot of logistical and labour work receiving, uncrating, dealing with storing and removing crates on vehicles they didn't make any margin on, to only make PDI and assembly.

The way I see it the dealers might end up getting a lot less milk, for basically the same amount of squeeze?

I'm not sure how you can say that without knowing what Amazon's cut is going to be?

I've been in sales and marketing my whole life, I've worked for multiple manufacturers and dealt with sales channels like distributors and retailers who sold our product. I know most retailers would be ecstatic if they could ride the coat-tails of a manufacturers marketing efforts, like trade-shows and mailers, because they would eventually reap the benefit of the sale without dipping into their own MDF (Marketing Development Funds) provided by the vendor.

*IF* Amazon was purely a demand-generation and order-taking front-end *AND* if the commission was either insignificant or covered by Royal Enfield, then the retailer stands to gain significant add-on business without giving up any commission and/or incurring additional spend on in-house sales and marketing effort and $$$.

Without knowing the behind-the-scenes numbers It's impossible to run a cost/benefit analysis and say whether the retailer is getting screwed or getting rich off of this specific deal.

Our motto as a manufacturer was, "Don't p1ss off the channel". They have a say in what end-product they can push (especially in the case of multi-line motorcycle dealerships) and if RE was playing this smart, they would incent their channel properly so they would view the Amazon initiative as an additional revenue opportunity as opposed to displacing or cannibalizing their own sales effort.

 

[Jampy00]

Amazon is a fantastic search engine for products.

 

[adri]

I'm not sure how you can say that without knowing what Amazon's cut is going to be?

I've been in sales and marketing my whole life, I've worked for multiple manufacturers and dealt with sales channels like distributors and retailers who sold our product.

Same, but the multiple manufacturers I worked for were all in the powersports industry. And the work I still do (or at least did until my accident two months ago) has me in and out of dealerships every single day.

Powersports dealers aren't your average retailers. Just look at how wide the difference between margins are. Or how dealers will sign up for a brand, just to secure exclusive rights to be the ONLY seller of that line within their marketing area. I can get Tide detergent from anywhere, but if I want a Triumph motorcycle, I either need to go to Powersports TO, or else I'm going to spend almost an hour to get to the next closest place. Retailers and powersports dealers are different animals.

Best we leave this question to the dealers themselves to answer rather than speculating on it though. Next time you're in a dealership, ask the dealership owners if they'd like this. It'd be interesting to see who says what on the topic. For some lines and some dealers, it might be a really good fit. For others, the exclusivity was the whole point, and it'll ruffle feathers.

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