The development of digital retail is making its way through the automotive data sector, as Plant has done in the past few years. In a long line of digital buzzwords we can not help but be swept away by it. As we all have seen and experienced, that the fever concentrating on plantation has completely changed the basic functions of working with our analytics. Except that it did not happen. And just to fill that gap, digital retail and what I call amazon panic alarm, are running to replace it.
Amazon is not coming for your dealership, and your customers never want to buy an online car to come to the showroom floor. Yes, Amazon is working its way in every conceivable crack of the retail world, but make sure that we all are doing the same thing here. What is digital retail in the automotive world? Its most fundamental thing is the impression that our customers want to do more than just browsing the list on our websites. In its most complex, we believe that they want an online retail experience like Amazon, from the beginning to the end where they can click on a car, add them to their car, evaluate their business, loan You can apply for a loan, you can pre-schedule, and then just go in the dealership and drive to grab the keys.
I do not trust the second edition, and you should not do either. The US Department of Commerce cited that e-commerce was responsible for only 11.7% of retail in the United States in 2016. Of course this number grew in 2017. My simple question is, are we worried about changing our entire business model, how more than 10% people are making their purchases? I hope you see what it is, an attempt to artificially create a market for new software.
In the automotive industry, digital retailing is about easy and comfortable customer travel. It should not be about creating an environment where your customer is going to buy a car without coming to your dealership. And the way to prepare for customers increases the desire to maximize your inventory, which your inventory returns to your people and your process. There is no such technique that will fix your dealership if any of those two things are broken.
Read enough articles and ads about digital retailing and you’ll find that they all have the same message: personalization of shopping experience. Now, no one comes directly to say that because it does not require additional widgets or software. But you can fulfill every aspect, which is without the purchase of digital retail, without fancy gimmick and more technology. In all likelihood, you already have everything that you need to create that intuitive experience for your customers, all you have to know is to see what its use and its implementation in its current process.
