There’s a lot of buzz in the auto industry about the industry’s changing business model and the move from bricks to clicks — where customers can complete some or all of steps to shop, finance and buy their vehicles online.
One of the chief architects behind this transition was in Toronto recently as a keynote speaker at the sold-out CADA Summit event. Mike Jackson, Chairman, CEO and President of AutoNation leads North America’s largest retail chain, with more than 250 stores across 15 states.
Jackson dazzled the crowd at the CADA Summit and shed light on his company’s plans to fix the disconnect between the online and the in-dealership shopping experience — something he calls the “great divide.”
His company’s AutoNation Express program started in south Florida and is rolling out across the rest of the state and then the rest of the country. The company’s websites are moving from informational to transactional.
Jackson’s company has invested heavily in the software and back-end systems to knit his network of dealerships together into one cohesive force, letting customers zero in on the vehicle they want. And as Jackson told Summit attendees, the best price an AutoNation customer can get will be the online one.
AutoNation is also enabling other types of transactions online, and will soon be rolling those out.
Now if you are thinking to yourself, “maybe that will work for him but it won’t work in my market,” you might be right. But you should really be saying to yourself: “it won’t work in my market — yet.” Which means you are fortunate that you still have time to adapt. The change is inevitable.
In fact, it’s going to be so effortless, and so widespread, we’ll all marvel it wasn’t here sooner. And you might be surprised to learn that fully online vehicle purchases might soon be here in Canada, too.
The best way to get your head around this change is simply to visit one of Jackson’s south Florida AutoNation Express websites and shop for a vehicle.
To access the site, enter a local zip code, search for your vehicle, provide some basic contact information, and then you are presented with an online price, (which is lower than the MSRP and includes all the latest incentives and current financing options). With a small credit deposit, that car is reserved for you and no one else can buy it for 48 hours. You can also sell your car to AutoNation completely online.
You schedule a visit to the dealership to wrap it up and it’s done. No big deal. Just a fast deal. And a deal that will be popular with some, but certainly not all customers.
Does this mean bricks and mortar stores are going away? Even Jackson doesn’t think so. “We have tried to deliver vehicles to people’s home. That’s not what they want,” Jackson told Summit attendees.
But they do want a faster and more transparent deal and to be respected as informed consumers who are ready to transact online.
The challenge for dealers is to always strive to create an amazing, engaging, transparent and fun vehicle shopping and purchase experience — wherever that experience happens to take place.
