The Disconnect in Digital Retailing
It’s no debate the present and future of automotive revolve around digital retailing. We are seeing more and more customers prefer to start their car buying journey online. But the way in which dealerships are tackling digital retailing is vastly different across the board.
Until very recently, the adoption of digital retailing had been a gradual process. Dealerships could take time to evaluate what worked and what didn’t. Suddenly, that gradual process became an immediate need. This forced dealerships to make quick decisions and implement digital retailing when and where they could.
The result: A disconnected approach that separates online from in-store, and even builds walls between sales and F&I. Many dealerships are now maintaining different processes depending on the customer and utilizing different tools for each step of the sales process.
Challenges With a Disconnected Approach
Having multiple, disconnected tools forces your customers and employees to enter the same information over and over. Think about all the data that gets entered during a car deal, starting with address, phone number, then a 17-digit VIN. Now think about that manually entered multiple times, across multiple deals, throughout the entire day… week… month. This isn’t seamless; it wastes valuable time, duplicates data, and often leads to errors.
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A disconnected approach also leads to issues in the transition from online to in-store. Over 90% of car buyers today will start their purchase online, typically attempting to do as much as possible, but almost all of them will inevitably visit the store for one reason or another. When this happens, is the customer starting the process over when they arrive, or is your salesperson able to seamlessly pick up where the customer left off?
Rethink Your Digital Retail Process
Now is the time to take a step back and evaluate where your digital retailing disconnects are happening and identify the root causes. You need to look at the entire sales process – whether online, in-store, or more likely, both – as one single process and ensure you have a solution in place that works across all departments, no matter where the customer is. ?
So, what are some of the challenges you’re facing with digital retailing?
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