Amazon is amazing, just got a baseball bat for the kids on a Sunday, a day earlier than expected.  WTS, not sure how'd they ever corner the market on used inventory.  Maybe they buy fleets and off-lease inventory en masse, build a big classified like Carmax and go for it.

I ADORE and massively respect Amazon but EVERYONE tries to get into the car game and quickly finds out how challenging it can be. Especially when it comes to pre-owned. 

If anyone is up for the challenge, it's Amazon. I'm sure if you had asked a grocery store executive in 1998 if they could ever see this new online bookseller owning the largest organic grocery store chain they'd say "Selling books is one thing, but selling groceries is a different challenge. They won't succeed." Now that online bookseller owns Whole Foods and sells perishable goods through Amazon Fresh.

They've already started testing the process selling new Fiats through the site in Italy.  Experts are saying they'll go the Carmax route, but as they grow, I could see them buying dealerships and using them as distribution centers. Eventually, it will hit a level of join or die.

With Amazon Vehicle being a system to help users figure out what vehicle would be best for them, they're already developing a system that would integrate well with "This is the type of car you want, we have this many at your local distribution center or we can have the luxury model shipped there in 2 days."

Amanda, I totally agree with you. Reports last week were dismal at best with Carvana losses of $47 million Q4 of 2017 as reported by Automotive News and Vroom allegedly preparing to lay off up to 50% of its staff (Tech Crunch article). I've worked many dealerships nationwide and Canada helping them implement digital retailing and geo-targeted marketing platforms and those who have been early adopters of these types of tools have increased margins. We can't lose sight of dealership processes and relate to consumers on a personal level. Humans still want human interaction and I think this is the biggest challenge facing mega online dealerships. How will a consumer be committed to a dealership that they have zero emotional connection with? Yes, Amazon is the most amazing company on the planet. But, there's a much different emotion attached to buying small ticket items online than an automobile consumers are normally financing. In my opinion, dealer's will not become obsolete any time soon. But, all dealers, whether independent or dealer group, need to implement a digital retailing tool and provide the consumer with a personal 'experience' from the time they hit the dealers online showroom or website.

Such a great conversation here and I'm so glad Patrick got it going! One of the reasons we created the Dealers Compressed series is BECAUSE WE BELIEVE IN THE DEALERSHIP MODEL.  Dealers have been staples of their communities for the better part of a century. They know their customers, they are involved in the same things. 

I believe there is ZERO reason the local dealer shouldn't be able to deliver the very best CX. Period. 

Here's the rub: If they aren't quick to adopt the new consumer shopping preferences and cater to them, they will begin to lose market share. The traditional road to the sale has to be thrown out and a customer driven, flexible process has to be adopted. 

Yes, Beepi died. Vroom isn't far behind. Carvana is losing a lot of money but they are a heck of a lot farther down the road. Soon there will be 5 more and one of them will stick. Amazon will likely acquire brick and mortar because they CAN! 

Bottom line, consumer preference will ALWAYS find a way to the top. At this point everyone has a shot at it and I would argue dealers have the advantage, but that window is closing fast. 

A world whereby Amazon sells everything and eliminates SMB is not healthy for any economy in the long run, and we're almost at that point.

Kelly, I definitely share your opinion! 

Kelly...that's our whole purpose behind the series. We don't want to hit that point. The warning signs are all there...acquiring Whole Foods, acquiring Ring, Toys'R'Us filing for bankruptcy...industries looking to join before they're crushed.

Everyone wants to say that selling a car online is hard, but the envelope keeps being pushed. Someone's going to figure it out and consumers are going to love it. Let's all help dealers figure it out first.

Anyone see the picture of Bezos eating an iguana?  Disturbing.  How they went from selling books badly, to the evil empire of consumerism is a staggering tale.  It seems to me that Bezos is just anti-human enough to make some "political" miscalculation and get blacklisted by the public.  Perhaps it's too much AI vs actual employees, perhaps it's a whistle blower that spills some beans, maybe his space rockets crashes into NYC, who knows.  He makes too much money, has too much power, and has climbed too high...for what good?  Seriously, what good?  So we can get a couple bucks off an eye cream that arrives the next day instead of 3?  I'd be building out inner cities with recreation and job training facilities, investing in  natural remedy research for disease, building artificial limbs for people who need them, buying up huge tracts of property to help endangered species etc.  This guy wants to build his own starships...fine.  Our species isn't going anywhere except earth so, better seriously consider that no one gets off of this raft and we better keep it afloat.  For 39 billion a quarter - you can just leave the auto industry alone Jeff.  

Hey, PB, I want to interview you...email me with your info: Kelly@dealershipnews.com

BTW, the reason we had a record year for car sales last year and in 2015 was because we lost 1.5 million vehicles due to hurricanes.  Show me a big hurricane season and I'll show you...the money!

I'd argue there's probably a less destructive way to raise automotive sales.

Beepi died, but it's founders son got a $600 million payday out of it and he went onto become a billionaire himself! And some of you will make $10 for the appointment and $100 flat if it sells. We're on the wrong side of big money. So when people tell me about some new car website, some hot new gimmick - I know why they are in business.

But gimmicks are only gimmicks when they're something to get a customer in the door and really offer them nothing extra. A new online feature to sell cars more efficiently that actually works would just be good business practice to give customers what they want.