Lamborghini's online store received more than 10,000 orders - but no one ever paid. Yet its marketing department said the initiative worked. Provided to China Daily

Forays into social media and Web shopping malls

With competition white hot in the real marketplace, some carmakers are turning to online retail sales to create a buzz and boost brand awareness.

Domestic automaker Geely announced that in the first four months of the year it sold 1,200 of its Gleagle brand cars on Tmall, a popular e-commerce portal.

That was more than its total sales of 1,038 units last year at brick-and-mortar Gleagle dealerships.

On April 7 alone as the Gleagle Tmall shop celebrated its second anniversary, the automaker sold 122 units, a record for cars on Tmall.

But Geely isn't the only automaker going online.

In January, Mercedes-Benz sold 666 of its small urban brand smart priced at 128,888 yuan ($19,828) through the micro blog Sina Weibo.

In September last year, 200 smarts went on sale at Taobao - the parent of Tmall and China's largest e-commerce platform - offering group buyers a 23 percent discount from the sticker price of 176,000 yuan at actual dealerships.

The first car sold in just 24 seconds, with the rest purchased in three and a half hours.

The company initially estimated it would take 21 days.

A salesman at a traditional Mercedes-Benz outlet in Beijing said he was stunned.

"More than 100 cars were sold in just an hour - at our dealership, we just sell one or two smarts a day," he added.BMW, Audi, Volvo, FAW Toyota, Dongfeng, Nissan and Beijing Hyundai have all now started online shops at Tmall.

Super car brand Lambor-ghini made an attempt at online sales in May 2011, but the move turned into a target for online pranksters.

Just a week after a 6.48 million yuan model was displayed on its Taobao showroom for sale, more than 10,000 people placed orders - but no one ever paid.

A Taobao visitor wrote on his micro blog that "whenever I'm in a bad mood I 'buy' a Lamborghini. Then I feel I am extremely rich."

The online showroom was forced to close in just a month with no deal ever made.

Yet in the world of online and social media marketing, it was termed a success.

"We never expected to actually sell a Lamborghini on Taobao," said one of the Lamborghini personnel in charge of online sales.

"We just wanted to make the brand known to more people. Taobao is just a channel for our marketing strategy."