The Missing Pieces in Automotive Digital Retailing

I am starting a new series of LinkedIn articles that will cover my recent observations from assisting dealers plan, install, and train their teams to embrace digital retailing. My brother Glenn Pasch and I have been traveling extensively and have been blessed to work with many popular digital retailing platforms.

Today, there are no clear leaders in digital retailing technology because of roadblocks which are preventing digital retailing technology companies from writing more than a handful of credible success stories.

If you are not familiar with the roadblocks I see, here are just four of the ten topics I will cover in this upcoming LinkedIn series.

• Creating a modern retail experience will take a complete reboot of automotive merchandising practices which includes how vehicles are priced and displayed on dealership websites. Modern retailing will require an interactive photo gallery, a clear selling price, and a primary (simple) CTA button that is easily spotted by shoppers.
• Creating a better retail experience for consumers will require modern communication strategies which move away from lead form capture strategies and embrace online chat and texting. Dealers need to engage consumers while they are on their websites instead of chasing them via email. Less than 40% of consumers complete a "Get ePrice" form and less than 50% of the leads submitted include a two-way engagement via email.
• Digital retailing desperately needs automotive CRM companies to upgrade their ability to accept multiple updates to a single customer record. CRM companies must stop creating duplicate records every time another step in the DR process is completed. The practice of marking DR leads "bad" is just frustrating managers and creating a poor customer experience.
• Dealers cannot expect digital retailing to work if they see DR tools as super lead generators which require no changes in CRM communication strategies, showroom process, and price transparency. Digital retailing for used cars fails when the consumer comes in and gets penciled for $1,500 more than the listed price which was used by the consumer to estimate their payments to establish affordability.

Vehicle Merchandising in a Modern World

If dealers expect consumers to fall in love with a car online and make a decision to visit, the car must be the star of the Vehicle Detail Page (VDP). Great photos and interactive 360 spin technology allows a consumer to move their car shopping from consideration to a showroom visit. Sadly, most dealers do not have much faith that great merchandising helps increase turn rates.

Visit Carvana and you will see a simplified VDP design and 360 spin technology for the vehicle that is for sale. Visit the interactive website for the 2020 Corvette Stingray and you will see an 360 spin technology in place with the ability to add features and trim, packages in real-time. The GM website was so good that I ordered a Stingray for 2010 delivery without ever seeing the car.

SpinCar is a leader in 360 spin technology for the automotive industry. Not only does the company have a turnkey package for photo capture but they also have an amazing retargeting product that targets engaged shoppers after they leave the dealer's website. Their technology supports my years of education about retargeting strategies based on website engagement.

Watch My Interview and Listen to My Podcast

I recently had the opportunity to host Devin Daly, Founder of SpinCar in my office. Take a minute to watch this short video and then listen to my podcast interview. I am confident that after hearing about SpinCar, you will want to upgrade the merchandising on your website.

Devin will also be speaking at the upcoming 2019 Automotive Analytics & Attribution Summit in November. This annual conference attracts the brightest minds and technology solutions to help solve the many challenges we face in automotive retail. Check out the schedule and color brochure here: https://bit.ly/33cK8Qw