Car Dealer Digital Retailing

What to check before you buy

Check how the payment is calculated and whether it matches what the desk will quote. A mismatch is the main source of lost trust.

Get an answer on which lenders, rebates and programs are loaded and how often they refresh. What happens when the vehicle sells before the customer finishes?

How is the trade-in offer produced? Which disclosures and e-signature steps does the customer see?

Then measure completion. What share of shoppers who start a deal reach each step?

How many deals that began online close, compared with your ordinary lead conversion? Insist on a report that shows where customers drop out.

Test the failure cases as well as the success path. Try a trade with a lien, a customer who applies for credit and is declined, a vehicle that sells during the process and a shopper who changes the term after reserving, then watch what the customer sees and what the store receives, since digital retail tools are often built for the clean case and tested on it, while real customers produce the messy ones every day.

Questions to put to every car dealer digital retailing vendor

• Is the connection read-only or bi-directional?
• Who pays each integration fee?
• What breaks when either product changes?

Other categories dealers compare alongside Digital retailing: CRM & sales enablement, Desking & deal structuring, Trade appraisal & valuation, and Equity & database mining.