Tag: Digital Retailing

From Digital Retailing to Ecommerce: Maximizing Every Digital Transaction

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Digital retailing is the way of the future for the automotive industry. If your dealership is not implementing digital retailing capabilities during some part of the consumer journey, you could be missing out on leads, and taking money from your own pocket. But not every customer wants the same things from their online experience—they all want options. Our research shows that customers don’t want to follow a prescribed sales process. In fact, 9 of 10 customers prefer a flexible, personalized car buying experience. 

However, as the consumer landscape continues shifting, consumers want to do more shopping online. This means dealers must expand their digital retailing offerings to ensure they are not missing out on potential sales. 89% of franchise dealers added at least one digital step in 2020.¹ So if your competition down the road is already adopting digital retailing tools, you’re already missing out. 

Whether you are selling cars fully online as the industry bridges towards an eCommerce future or somewhere in between, we have technology at Cox Automotive to help you create a seamless online shopping experience for your consumers.  

Digital Retailing VS Ecommerce  

There is often confusion when people think about digital retailing and eCommerce. While most people might think they are the same thing, they are different.  

Digital retailing helps guide the overall experience for your shopper and saves time for both you and the consumer. Your customers can easily navigate and engage with your website during different stages of their purchasing journey.   

The digital retailing process is mostly supported by a member of your dealership staff. For example, the consumer starts the deal online and can take it to a credit app submission, sometimes even a credit decision, but at that point dealership personnel will need to engage with the consumer to walk them through the deal. Digital retailing can help your dealership:  

  • Increase exposure and reach 
  • Give you the ability to turn vehicles quicker 
  • Increase acquisition and inventory capabilities 
  • Close deals faster – and more profitable deals
  • Improve customer satisfaction – and referrals

eCommerce involves a fully digital transaction where the consumer begins the deal online. But the main differentiator is that consumers can complete their purchase steps at their own pace while working through the deal all the way through a digital sign for the vehicle to actual delivery to their front door. This fully digital transaction heavily involves automated F&I automation, not dealership staff. In fact, most dealerships have a sole eCommerce team focused on end-to-end digital transactions.

Dealer.com Digital Retailing Capabilities  

When it comes to digital retailing, Kelley Blue Book® My Wallet is the first digital retailing touchpoint consumers can have with your Dealer.com site. Dealers can integrate Kelley Blue Book My Wallet, an intuitive tool designed to improve the shopping to buying journey and drive more quality connections between buyers and sellers, directly on your website. My Wallet gives dealers access to everything from down payment, trade-in, and financing information – the data needed to speed up the deal-making process and get more accurate leads. 

1.1 MILLION VISITORS HAVE SYNCED THEIR MY WALLET PROFILE ON DEALER.COM2 

80% of consumers think it is a good or great idea to buy entirely online.³ And with Accelerate My Deal, consumers can complete even more steps online, speeding up the deal for everyone. When shoppers enter their information into Kelley Blue Book® My Wallet it’s automatically transferred into the Accelerate My Deal experience. Accelerate My Deal leads on average close at a 48% higher close rate compared to other internet leads helping dealers get more highly qualified leads and boost their profits.⁴ My Wallet gives shoppers a personalized shopping journey and Accelerate My Deal moves the shopper from journey to purchase. To learn more about Accelerate My Deal, check out this guide.  

“Digital retailing tools maximize a dealership’s marketing strategy by offering a personalized shopping journey to car buyers who want choices on how they shop with dealerships. Over the past few years this digital transformation really gained momentum as consumers searched for more digital tools that help them shop from the comfort of their home by locating vehicles during our inventory shortage, or providing real-time interest rates which dictate what they can afford. The results of the last few years support the fact that you want a multi-channel approach to be competitive, you can attract a broader range of consumers by offering more ways to start their purchase – and you need to have the right tools for your sales team to create the most convenient way to purchase no matter where your customer started. What I would underscore here is that innovative “tools” are part of the formula, but to avoid restarting the customer you need well-trained people and processes to execute and drive the right outcomes.” Brett Pomerantz, Sr. Director – Enterprise Solutions, Cox Automotive 

DID YOU KNOW 70% OF SHOPPERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BUY FROM A DEALER IF THEY CAN START THE PROCESS ONLINE? ⁵ 

The new age of automotive retail is here, and consumers desire a streamlined, digital experience. So, to help you meet them where they are, it’s important to take a look at where you are.

Whether you are slow to adopt digital retailing or at full-force adoption, there’s still advantages. And step by step you can shift to the ecommerce future that’s already staring down dealers and pushing them in that direction.  

¹ 2020 Digitization of End-to-End Retail-Study 

² 1.1 million visitors sync their My Wallet profile 

³ 2022 Car Buying Journey Study  

⁴ Cox Automotive Product Analytics. Accelerate My Deal Lead to Close Analysis using VinSolutions sales data. Data from Jan 2020-Nov 2020. Analysis performed January 2021 

⁵ 2021 Car Buying Journey Study 

Dealer.com, Kelley Blue Book, and Autotrader Work Better Together

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As more consumers shop online for cars, dealers must maintain a consistent online presence at every touch point of the car buying journey to drive engagement and sales. Dealer.com, combined with Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader, provide unified access to the industry’s most visited consumer shopping site, most trusted vehicle research site, and the premier dealer digital marketing platform.  

Nuan Openshaw-Dion and Jessica Stafford share how Dealer.com, combined with Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader is the only connected, end-to-end set of solutions designed to help dealers reach more in-market shoppers and engage them at every stage of the car buying process. 

Close More Deals with Your Digital Retailing Tools

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It’s no longer enough to simply implement digital retailing tools. To be competitive and close more deals, you have to understand the “why” of digital retailing. Why do consumers seek out these experiences? Why do they choose one dealership’s digital retailing over another? And, most importantly, why should you pay attention to consumers’ answers to these questions?

Amanda Hilerio, eCommerce Performance Manager at Dealer.com, recently spoke to dealers about how to take their digital retailing game to the next level. She discussed five talking points to help dealers attract more car sales leads and get the most out of their digital retailing investment.

  1. Consumer behavior trends and the factors affecting consumer decisions
  2. Why you should pay attention to these consumer trends
  3. How to align your processes with consumer trends
  4. Technology integrations that make your processes easier
  5. How to connect your digital storefront to your physical dealership

Watch the webinar to see how your dealership can connect with more dealer leads through your digital retailing experience.

Watch the Webinar
Learn More About Dealer.com

How to Stand Out in a World of Digital Dealerships

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How to Stand Out in a World of Digital Dealerships

Consumers have spoken and dealers have responded. As a result of overwhelming demand, about 70% of dealerships now offer some form of a digital buying experience.* They are giving customers what they want—the option to start and (in some cases) even complete the car buying process online. But with so many dealers going digital, how does your digital dealership stand out?

Bring Awareness to Your Customers

Simply having a digital buying experience is no longer enough, especially if your customers don’t know what you offer. To differentiate your dealership and win more automotive leads, you have to bring awareness to your digital options.

Having digital buying tools on your website is a good first step, but you have to create, design, and implement a buying experience that speaks to your audience—modern car buyers. Customers are already motivated to move through a digital buying experience (two out of three want to complete even more steps digitally during their next buying experience). And when they know what dealership offers, you stand out.

Tell your customers all about your digital buying experience and make the benefits clear to the customer—reduced time in the dealership, added convenience, and the ability to buy even when out of market. Doing so can expand your reach, attract more car buyer leads, and provide a clear pathway to engage with your offerings.

Make Your Digital Experience as Easy as Possible

One of the top pain points of buying a car is spending time in the dealership. If your customers can complete a handful of steps digitally before arriving at the dealership, the entire car buying process will be smoother, more efficient, and easier for your customers. These initial digital steps may include the ability to:

  • Calculate personalized payments in every aspect of their deal structure
  • Include every possible incentive and rebate available to your customers
  • Value a trade-in and see how the price of a new or used car adjusts accordingly
  • Get an idea of their credit worthiness and even apply for and get preapproved for financing
  • Schedule a test drive appointment

When you offer this kind of experience, word gets around. Before long, your online reviews will reflect that buying a car from your dealership is the best, most efficient experience around. This has a compounding effect of bringing even more awareness to your dealership as a place of business that speeds up the overall buying process and treats customers right.

Take Your Digital Buying Experience Above and Beyond

Another way to differentiate your digital buying experience is to implement steps that few other dealerships offer. This can disrupt the status quo of the new digital dealership and create some buzz around your offerings. These steps may include:

  • Personalized virtual video test drive: This may involve a video call with the customer while members of your sales team drive the car and show off features.
  • Remote deal signing: Give customers the option to complete signing from the convenience of their home or office. This can expand your dealership audience to include out-of-market customers and may give your dealership a competitive edge through inventory shortages.
  • Online vehicle reservation: On a similar note, giving digital customers the ability to put their name down for a car and get in line for an upcoming purchase can give your dealership an advantage when inventory is low across the industry.
  • Scheduling a first service appointment: Consider introducing your customers to your service department with a virtual service meeting. This can help your customers establish a consistent pattern of bringing their car to your service department and boost service revenue.

The digital dealership may be the new norm, but your digital dealership can stand out from the crowd by bringing awareness to customers, making your digital experience as easy and customer-friendly as possible, and going the extra mile to offer digital steps other dealerships don’t.

To learn more about how you can stand out in a world of digital dealerships, check out Dealer.com Manager of Performance Management B. Malaczewski’s recent webinar, all about differentiating the digital buying process. You can also learn more about delivering the kind of digital shopping experience your customers expect at Dealer.com.

* Digitization of End-to-End Retailing (DoEER) study by Cox Automotive

5 Ways to Build Trust with Modern Car Buyers 

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5 Ways to Build Trust with Modern Car Buyers

Written By: Chase Abbott

Half of a consumer’s decision to repurchase or recommend an automotive brand or dealer is based on trust. While dealerships and car salespeople have long suffered from a lack of consumer confidence throughout the purchase process, gaining trust most certainly is possible when dealerships act intentionally. A leading way to win over auto sales leads is through a digital buying experience—if it is done properly. 

Even with digital sales methods, dealerships need to bolster consumer relationships to meet their goals. Ensuring that the digital sales process is developed and grounded in trust ultimately benefits both the car buyer leads and the dealership. Here are five ways your dealership can build trust with modern car buyers. 

1. Understand the power of digital 

Automotive sales have been trending toward an era of online shopping for some time now. But within the past 18 to 24 months alone, the percentage of vehicles purchased digitally has skyrocketed from 2% to almost 30%—a massive and sudden shift in consumer preferences that dealerships simply can’t ignore. 

This preference to purchase vehicles online is still gaining momentum. More than three-quarters (76%) of automotive dealer leads are willing to consider a complete online purchase process. This movement toward digital or hybrid purchasing is not likely to go away anytime soon, and savvy dealerships understand that the sales process has been permanently disrupted. Having the right technology available is a necessary basis for initiating customer relationships, anticipating their needs, and building trust from the get-go. 

2. Evaluate technology to ensure you have the right solutions in place 

Whether your dealership has digital experience tools already in place or if you’re just getting started, it’s important to evaluate available technology so it is serving both your customer base and internal needs. With the right functionality, these tools can guide automotive leads through the sales funnel, close deals with more efficiency, and increase profits. 

Connecting those dots and getting the technology right ultimately impacts your bottom line. Dealerships surveyed earned 25% higher front-end gross profits and 24% higher back-end gross profits, compared to traditional dealer leads. The right technology will meet customers where they already are in the sales process, providing tailored support that demonstrates your business recognizes their unique needs. 

3. Use customer data to keep deals moving forward 

Through responsible customer data usage, dealerships can target buyers with relevant automotive digital marketing in spaces that are of most use for them, resulting in a win-win situation. Admittedly, it’s not easy to do. About half of dealerships say that it is a challenge to leverage data and systems to identify opportunities, while 86% of dealers agree that having accurate and complete customer data is a dealership priority. However, the right software and tools can assist. 

Customer data can come from a variety of sources, including the consumer sharing it directly with the dealership, the consumer sharing it with a trusted third-party partner, or outside entities collecting it. Ideally, the dealership combines its own data with that of trusted partners for the most well-rounded view. The data can help your dealership understand the customer’s vehicle type preferences, budget, stage in the sales process, communication preferences, and more. 

Your own data should provide the insights you need to offer personalized online user experiences like recommendations, specials, and fixed operations content based on their previous shopping behaviors. Customer data provides a 216% increase in lead form submission rates, based on a Dealer.com study of 524 franchise dealers who subscribed to Experience Optimization. Dealerships using Experience Optimization showed that customers were three times more likely to initiate a trade-in deal. Salespeople can use data to inform their approach to a deal and to better assure customers that they are being supported throughout their ownership journey. 

4. Give customers control of their buying experience 

Customers want to be in control of their shopping experience, so most successful dealerships offer a range of online and offline communication options to help make customers comfortable and enable open dialogue. Offering a hybrid experience that combines the functionality of brick-and-mortar operations with the convenience of shopping online is key for building strong relationship with a wide range of customers. 

With this hybrid model, customers can do as much of the shopping online as they would like, and then come to the dealership when they’re ready. This level of flexibility helps bolster confidence and trust in the process. Two-thirds of dealer leads say that they want to complete more of their next car-buying process online compared to their prior vehicle purchase. If a customer can purchase on their own terms, they’re more likely to give your dealership good reviews/referrals and remain a loyal customer. 

5. Gather and utilize feedback from recent happy buyers 

Consumers familiar with shopping online are overwhelmingly satisfied with their dealership experience, with 77% expressing this sentiment. Harness the power of your happy customers and make it easy for them to spread the word for you. Build the feedback-solicitation process into the car-buying experience. 

This is especially important because 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business, and almost the same percentage trust these reviews the way they trust personal recommendations. More than half of shoppers say that the most important factor when choosing a dealership is the dealer’s reputation. 

Building trust with the modern car buyer will help enhance and solidify your reputation. You can accomplish this by understanding what car buyers want, utilizing technology to your advantage, giving customers the ability to shop online, and then seamlessly moving the process forward. To learn more about how you can build trust with modern car buyers, visit Dealer.com. 

A version of this article originally appeared in Digital Dealer. 

Take Your Website to the Next Level

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The dealership website experience—and the new ground a website must cover—has changed.

Today’s dealership websites must do more than navigate shoppers to your car inventory. With consumer behavioral shifts, more flexible buying processes, and profitability fluctuating at the dealership, dealer websites must be configured to play a central role in every transaction, and every interaction.

The website experience must cater to consumers from all stages of the buying journey, and more importantly, it should play a part in the success of your digital marketing strategy.

What consumers expect from the car buying experience has also changed.

2020 showed us that digital marketing is no longer simply a channel or a box for dealers to check. It accelerated the need for innovation and a focus on the entire shopping and buying experience—from vehicle consideration, selection, negotiation, selling, and commerce.

Digital marketing experts help dealerships take their website to the next level.

As dealers, you must manage multiple vendor relationships on top of managing the business of the dealership. That’s why it’s important to have specialized digital marketing expertise to help take your digital marketing strategy to the next level. You deserve a digital marketing that does more than help implement your website but stays ahead of emerging trends and best practices across all relevant focus areas including SEO, reputation management, creative, and video. 

More than a website provider, Dealer.com is the industry’s only complete digital marketing solution, fortified by unsurpassed customer insights, that provides dealerships with the technology and expertise to delight automotive shoppers and increase profits.

Is your digital marketing equipping you to adapt and thrive? Consider your capabilities in these key areas:

  • Does your digital marketing prioritize data and have meaningful integrations? Reliable consumer data is critical to success, not only for automotive digital marketing but also for overall dealership profitability. The right data enables you to generate more automobile leads by personalizing every touchpoint a consumer has with your dealership Dealer.com leverages the exclusive, first-party Cox Automotive data which includes insights from two out of three U.S. car buyers (2020 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey).

  • Is your digital marketing partner implementing tools and processes that make your work easier? If you haven’t updated your processes to incorporate new capabilities, you’re missing out on opportunities to improve—and on opportunities to deliver the best possible consumer experiences. 

  • Is your digital marketing partner making your job easier and acting as a true partner in your success? Or are they a little more than technical support? There’s no way around it—the right tools and the right data are critical to providing premium consumer experiences. But there’s a third critical element: the right people. Without the right people, even the very best tools and data will fall short. At Dealer.com, a meaningful partnership with our dealerships is at the core of our business. Your success is our success. With the right people behind premium consumer experiences, we can all win.  

You deserve a digital marketing partner who does more than check boxes. You need a data-driven partner who helps create a successful digital marketing strategy, maximizes your marketing ROI, and minimizes confusion.

Discover what a complete digital marketing solution could do for you.

Marketing Your Website for Digital Retailing Success

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Nearly every franchise dealer offers digital retailing, but very few do anything to effectively market their experience. They take a set-it-and-forget-it approach and fail to capitalize on a prime opportunity to engage customers and stand out from the competition. In this on-demand webinar hosted by Drew McEleney, you’ll learn:

  • Why digital retailing is so important in today’s market
  • Why marketing and branding your digital retailing experience is worth the investment and how it sets you apart from other dealers
  • Best-in-class examples of digital retailing marketing

Learn more about digital retailing tools from Dealer.comhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccsRcKHPaqQ&t=172s

Close More Deals with Your Digital Retailing Tools

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The pandemic accelerated the rate of consumer adoption for many online shopping experiences, from ordering takeout to buying groceries. Automotive retail was no exception as car buyers showed increased interest in shopping and purchasing cars online. In this session, we’ll discuss the new and evolving expectations of your digital retail shoppers. You’ll learn how to adjust your processes, make better customer connections, and close more deals. For example, we’ll teach you how to send shoppers links that they can use to build their own deals and how you can complete those deals with eContracting.

Learn more about digital retailing tools from Dealer.com

Amplify Your Fixed Ops Merchandising to Find Hidden Profits

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With the chip shortage forecasted to continue, every dollar of revenue matters. And while you may think you’re already getting every dollar out of your dealership, you’re probably leaving money on the table in your service department 

Join Dana Ayer, Performance Management Manager at Dealer.com, you’ll learn about website marketing best practices, key Cox Automotive integrations, and other actions you can take to amplify your fixed ops messaging to find more profits. 

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Differentiate Your Digital Buying Experience

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The pandemic drastically changed the habits and expectations of car buyers. With shoppers spending more time online, it’s becoming harder to differentiate your business from the dealers down the street. To keep customers—and their dollars—coming your way, you’ll need to adapt and implement new digital shopping experiences that your competitors can’t match.  

During this session, we’ll share key insights and best practices for creating easy, fast and frictionless car buying processes. You’ll also learn how to market and communicate those experiences with a multi-channel digital marketing strategy. 

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