Is Amazon the future of selling cars?

There’s no doubt that ‘digital’ continues to reshape the automotive industry, and retail in particular has been undergoing a transformation for years. Over the past decade we’ve seen experiments such as Rockar ‘digital stores’ appearing in shopping centres offering ‘the new way to buy a car’, adopted by the likes of Hyundai and Jaguar Land Rover. The digital stores swap spacious, out-of-town showrooms for high footfall locations, displaying the new range of cars on offer on digital screens rather than in the flesh, with ‘Rockar Angels’ (just like an Apple ‘Genius’) to hand, making buying a car almost like buying a new smartphone.

In 2017, ŠKODA UK took the ‘digital showroom’ a step further, not with a new ‘digital store’ but with an online showroom, where customers could access the ŠKODA Live Tour on their device and browse the new car range at a time and place that suited them. Product Hosts used a live stream to walk the customer through the car features, using smartphone cameras and static cameras, answering questions along the way and even booking a test drive. Variations of this approach are now common, with video, chat and appointment booking becoming standard parts of the modern buying journey.

Or how about ordering a new car through Amazon? What started as industry speculation has become more real in the last couple of years. In the United States, Amazon launched Amazon Autos (initially focused on new vehicles) and has since expanded the offering. In the UK, Amazon has also been used as a discovery channel, with manufacturers trialling digital experiences that route customers into the retailer network rather than replacing it. Buying a car with the convenience people associate with online retail would be a complete remapping of car retail itself, and potentially the direction of travel.

Is this the end of the traditional dealership forecourt?

These digital services offered by retailers are an intuitive reaction to buyers’ tendencies and preferences: make buying a car quicker, easier, and in-line with the ‘click to buy’ shopping culture consumers have become accustomed to.

Peugeot’s platform, ‘Order Online by Peugeot’, launched in 2017 and allows customers to configure and complete the entire purchase process online. Early results were widely reported as encouraging, with customers often taking the time to personalise their order rather than simply choosing an off-the-shelf configuration as they typically do in the showroom.

What does this mean for dealerships?

Understanding customer behaviour is key for a car dealership’s retail strategy, but you don’t have to open a state of the art digital store to keep up to date with the ‘digitalisation’ of the industry. Here’s our advice on some practical ways to move forward with the changes and incorporate technological advances intelligently.

• Stay up to speed with digital evolution. You don’t have to open a state of the art digital store, but it’s important to understand consumer behaviour. If you fall behind, your competitors will begin to outshine you. It may be wise to explore opportunities with bespoke automotive digital marketing agencies like Red Marlin to turbo-charge your reach.
• Remember your digital shop window. Is your website in need of an overhaul? Are you offering the imagery, videos, advice and information that consumers look for? Your most visible shop window is now online, not on the street.

Your most visible shop window is online, not on the street.

• Technological advancement is a benefit, not a threat. Technology has the power to take the most time-consuming elements of the buying process away from staff and online, leaving the sales person to focus on delivering expert advice and building trust and confidence. This emotional connection to secure a sale isn’t so achievable online.
• Embrace the change. Introducing iPads into showrooms which are available to prospective buyers provides the best of both worlds, keeping buyers on-site while they do their independent research, while offering a face-to-face, human sales transaction at the time of sale.
• Are you talking to your customers online? These days there’s no excuse for not reaching out to clientele. Social media profiles are ideal platforms to build trust and talk to customers, get to know them and tell them about your products and services.

These days there’s no excuse for not reaching out to clientele on social media.

• Leverage digital platforms to your benefit. Once you have opened up dialogue with your customers in the online environment, encourage them to visit your business or meet with you in person.
• Evolve staff roles. If your customers’ needs are changing, so should your salesperson’s offering. If customers are already well informed, focus on personable customer service, not explaining a car’s specification. There are elements of buying a car in person that appeal to and reassure consumers, such as making a purchase face-to-face with a signature and a handshake. Make sure you’re still offering this and to a very high standard.

For more advice on putting a digital strategy in place and staying on the cutting edge of the automotive industry, contact Red Marlin on 01926 832395 or email hello@redmarlin.co.uk.