The way consumers buy vehicles has changed significantly. A decade ago, the purchase journey started and ended in the showroom.
Today, most buyers complete a large portion of their research, comparison, and financing decisions online before they ever step into a dealership. This shift in buyer behaviour has placed real pressure on dealers to create purchasing experiences that work across both channels and connect them.
The question facing most automotive dealerships now is not whether to invest in digital retailing, but how to make it work alongside their existing operations.
Digital retailing for the automotive industry
Automotive digital retailing connects the online and in-dealership stages of the vehicle buying journey into one continuous process. Customers can begin by researching, configuring, and comparing vehicles online.
They can get a finance estimate, value a trade-in, and shortlist their options before they arrive at the dealership.
When they get there, the dealership team picks up from where the customer left off – no repetition, no reset, and no disconnect between what the customer did online and what the salesperson has in front of them.
Dealerships are also looking to produce unique experiences for their online customers through website tools such as live chats, AI chatbots, financing calculators, and 360 vehicle views to help with creating an elevated online vehicle-buying experience for customers.
Automotive digital retailing benefits
Car dealerships that have adopted automated vehicle purchasing processes into their sales funnel are experiencing positive differences in their sales performance. Some of the benefits of automotive digital retailing for dealerships include:
Making the shift to automation will empower employees by removing a lot of the arduous and time-consuming tasks in existing sales processes, thus eliminating tedious administrative tasks and shortening the sales cycle. This frees up more time for them to focus on closing more deals.
Automotive digital retailing capabilities
A hybrid retailing experience should offer a clear, concise, well-designed purchase path that allows customers to move between online and in-person stages of the journey without losing their progress, giving them full control to self-direct themselves throughout the entire vehicle buying process.
Purchasing a vehicle typically involves numerous steps and the exact process will differ from one customer to another, but the capabilities of your digital retailing solution should include the following basic features:
- Vehicle catalog
- Search feature
- Shopping cart
- Trade-in valuations
- Human/ AI assist
- Credit options
- Finance and insurance products
- Price comparison
- Financing calculator
- Payment quotations
- Digital contracts
- Test drive scheduling
Automotive digital retailing and what it means for your dealership
While the physical showroom continues to exist, its format will be tweaked. Newer retail models are being explored in an attempt to strike a hybrid balance. Digital retailing solutions are meant to complement existing retailing efforts instead of replacing them.
Dealership sales teams can use the same platform to assist customers in person and connect with them through the dealership’s website, working from a single view of what each customer has already done, decided, and asked.
By using a digital retailing platform, dealership sales teams will be able to both assist customers in-person and connect with them online via the dealer’s website.
Digital retailing is not a replacement for the physical showroom. It is an extension of it.
Selecting an automotive digital retailing solution that matches the needs of your dealership
Deciding on an automotive digital retailing solution should not be taken lightly. Working with an industry-recognized solutions partner that fits the needs of your dealership is the place to start.
Digital retailing partners are able to empower dealers with the ability to provide customers with the process and information that is needed to make an informed purchasing decision.
Annata works with Microsoft, Sitecore, and Touchcast to deliver connected digital retailing experiences for automotive enterprises — built on the A365 platform and the Microsoft ecosystem.
If your dealership is evaluating digital retailing options, or looking to connect your online and in-person channels more effectively, speak with an Annata automotive specialist.
More information on Annata’s solutions is available here.
