Opening the Lid on the Ideal Digital Toolbox for Dealers

It’s been more than a year now since COVID-19 effectively shut down the world economy. Over the course of that time, automotive dealers have had to shift their sales processes in ways they never anticipated, at speeds previously unimaginable.  

Despite consumer preferences shifting towards online shopping for years, the automotive industry had held its ground, often preferring to do business in person in showrooms. In 2020, when COVID restrictions on in-person meetings reduced foot traffic to dealers by 30% or more, it forced the hand of the industry to rapidly catch up. Fortunately, technology made it possible, with digital tools emerging as one of the most powerful ways dealers could adapt to the changing landscape.  

Here, we’re exploring the top four online sales and service tools we’ve seen adopted in the past year. From chat and trade-in to service scheduling and increasingly popular digital retailing tools, they all contribute to an overall digital experience that is much richer for the end user. If your dealership hasn’t already implemented some or all of these tools, you may be missing out on the large number of consumers looking to buy or arrange service online. 

Chat, Trade-In, and Service Scheduling 

Nowadays, you would be hard pressed to find a Tier 3 automotive website without chat, trade-in, and service scheduling capabilities. The dealers that have been implementing these tools within the last year are playing catch up—they’re now seen as a necessity on a dealer’s site. Take a look at some of the benefits of each: 

• Chat tools allow dealership agents to interact with customers over chat or text message. This ensures a more immediate response for consumers, and helps dealers identify opportunities to schedule appointments for consumers to come into the dealership. Chat adoption has increased by 30 to 50% (depending on OEM) over the last year. 
• Trade-in tools allow consumers to get an accurate estimate of the resale or trade-in price of their current vehicle—all online. The ultimate goal is to get the consumer interested in trading in their current vehicle to purchase a new one. The vast majority of dealers have a trade-in tool, or trade-in as part of digital retailing, on their website. 
• Service scheduling applications allow a user to schedule an appointment to take their vehicle in for service. Many also allow users to coordinate shuttle or loaner vehicle service while their vehicle is being worked on. Rapid adoption in the last 12 months means that online service scheduling is also offered on most dealer sites; cutting-edge dealers are now offering at-home pickup/drop off to allow for a fully distanced experience and greater customer convenience. 

Digital Retailing 

While chat, trade-in, and service scheduling have become the norm, digital retailing tools are still relatively new and have soared in popularity, growing over 100% since we’ve entered the COVID era. They’re on pace to be as widely adopted as the other digital tools in the very near future.  

In fact, over the past 1-2 years, Shift Digital has launched more than 100 OEM/provider integrations of digital retailing tools, which is near the total number of website integrations we’ve done over the past 6-7 years. 

In general, digital retailing mirrors the e-commerce experience we get when we buy anything online. You can get a mortgage completely online; there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to buy a car.  

When it comes down to the nuts and bolts, digital retailing tools have the most variance between all of the other tools. Some have very light payment calculator functionality, while others allow you to sign contracts and truly, completely purchase a vehicle online. Generally, a digital retailing application will include the following pieces of functionality: 

• Payment Calculator 
• Trade-in Valuation 
• Finance (rates, credit application, bank integrations, etc.) 
• Digital Contracting  
• Accessories 

A Digital Future for the Automotive Industry 

These four tools are all very specific to the automotive industry, but they’re closely aligned with consumer demands and digital experience best practices that span all industries. Just think about how often you use chat or scheduling tools in other digital experiences. Or think about your favorite online e-commerce experience outside of automotive for clues to where technology could take us. 

The COVID situation massively accelerated the industry’s adoption of these digital practices, and in the scheme of things, it’s really for the better with improved customer satisfaction and dealer efficiency. As we think about what the industry looks like post-COVID, there’s no doubt these tools will continue to be a key part of the automotive digital experience. 

Shift Digital can help define and implement the processes you need to deeply engage your customers in the sales process from the comfort of their homes. When integrations of Shift Digital’s proprietary website tagging and analytics reporting solutions are coupled with these digital merchandising tools and a dealer’s website, dealers have unprecedented visibility into their customers’ entire digital journey. 

For more information on how your dealership can effectively manage your online presence in today’s world, and for support implementing your own customized plan, contact your dedicated Shift Digital representative.