New Report: Auto Dealers Consider Themselves Progressive/Willing to Adopt Digital Retailing, But Actual Digital Adoption Lags

eLEND Solutions Digital Retailing Survey reveals disconnects between what dealers say and what they do regarding digital retailing.  And there is confusion about what digital retailing actually is: majority define it as posting inventory online.

Foothill Ranch, CA –October 25, 2017 – A new auto dealership survey from eLEND Solutions offers a good news/bad news scenario for the future of digital retailing: dealers overwhelmingly say they are progressive and willing to adopt more digital retailing tools (84%), yet the majority define digital retailing as posting inventory and report that over 50% of their process continues to be manual/paper-based.

The snapshot survey, conducted among dealerships nationwide in August 2017, clearly illustrates that dealers are interested in a progressive, customer-focused, digital approach to retailing.   For example, dealers overwhelmingly agreed with the statement: “Sell the car the way the customer wants to buy it by letting shoppers start and stop when & where they want. Online or in-store.” but the actual process/tools implementation lags significantly behind this progressive intent. 

The dealerships surveyed cite customer service as their key dealership differentiator and believe a digital retail strategy is key to the shorter transaction times that they aspire to (90% want it to be under two hours but less than half are achieving that).

“One thing that remains consistent over the years, as we survey dealerships, is the disconnect between the progressive, streamlined digital process dealers say they want to offer and their ability to deliver it,’ said Pete MacInnis, CEO of eLEND Solutions. 

 “Customers’ expectations are passing beyond dealerships’ ability to deliver on those expectations,” continued MacInnis. “While this is, in part, attributable to slow adoption of new tools, entrenched legacy processes and the inherent complexity of car financing and purchasing, a key culprit is our industry’s inability to deliver a consistent, end-to-end digital retailing solution -- and one that is not cobbled together from multiple vendors. The dealership ‘will’ is there – they overwhelmingly want a solution that connects the online and offline dots – but the ‘wherefore’ has yet to arrive. The good news is that the solution is definitely on its way.”

Key Highlights from the Digital Retailing Survey:

• Customer service was cited as the top dealership differentiator
• 68% say the top benefit of digital retailing is shorter transaction times
• Dealerships overwhelmingly agree with the idea that their website operates as a ‘digital’ showroom (93%), but most define digital retailing as listing inventory versus actually allowing more of the deal to be initiated online or in-store app/web based smartphone/tablet technologies.

• While 84% plan to adopt more digital retailing tools, the majority (70%) are opting for an incremental approach.
• Reluctance to change and cost are cited as top barriers to adopting more tools – good news is that less than 20% are opposed to adoption.
• Online digital retailing tools connected with the in-store sales process was the top choice for nearly 70% of dealers.
• 60% say that if they could add more tools to make their websites more transactional, they would.

About eLEND Solutions
eLEND Solutions is a privately held automotive technology company specializing in online and in-store credit, finance and ‘deal making’ solutions designed to create a more efficient, faster moving Sales and F&I workflow that helps dealers sell more cars in less time, improve profitability and increase customer satisfaction.  For more information, visit www.elendsolutions.com.

Contact: 
Media Relations 
Melanie Webber, mWEBB Communications, (424) 603-4340, melanie@mwebbcom.com 
Crystal Hartwell, mWEBB Communications, (714) 987-1016, crystal@mwebbcom.com