Dealers Lean Into OmniChannel Marketing as Attributed Sales Increase

Some merchants sold hundreds of automobiles using online sales platforms, while others said that at least half of their transactions involved some sort of online activity. Public dealership organizations around the country reported seeing a strong rise in digital sales in the third quarter. The CEO of Lithia Motors Inc., Bryan DeBoer, stated last month that the company's Driveway online sales platform generated more than $290 million in revenue during the quarter that ended on September 30. This is equivalent to nearly 4 percent of the retailer's total quarterly revenue. Driveway was used to retail and wholesale more than 10,300 vehicles. According to DeBoer, Lithia's e-commerce solutions have been used to facilitate the retail sale of more than 30,700 automobiles thus far in 2022. A significant number of the deals did not involve any sort of test drive.

He stated, "I do believe that there is becoming a greater portion of the consumers that are getting more comfortable with the idea of a vehicle being delivered to home and... not having to test drive a car." "I do believe that there is becoming a greater portion of the consumers that are getting more comfortable with the idea of a vehicle being delivered to home."

Asbury Automotive Group Inc.'s Clicklane, a digital sales tool, is expected to generate $1 billion in revenue in 2022 and $2.2 billion in 2023, according to statements made by Asbury's senior vice president of operations, Dan Clara, a month ago. Clicklane was developed by Asbury Automotive Group Inc. David Hult, the CEO of Asbury, stated that he anticipates that within the next two to three years, the Clicklane platform would be responsible for 45 to 50 percent of the company's revenues. According to Hult, a range in that range is the "critical mass" at which Asbury would consider modifying the remuneration, personnel, and hours at physical stores.

Executives have stated that more than ninety percent of Clicklane's clients in the third quarter were new to Asbury, and that the platform converted consumers at a rate that was more than twice as high as that of a typical Internet lead. According to Asbury, it set a new quarterly sales record in the third quarter by selling 6,817 automobiles through Clicklane. This is a 13 percent increase from the previous quarter.

According to comments made by the company's COO Daryl Kenningham a month ago, Group 1 Automotive Inc. also established a new high water mark by selling 7,600 automobiles through its AcceleRide platform during the third quarter. That accounted for 11 percent of Group 1's retail sales in the United States, which was another record.

According to Kenningham, throughout the month of September, nearly three out of every four clients utilized AcceleRide for some aspect of their transaction. According to him, Group 1 is putting up efforts to connect AcceleRide with the dealership management, customer relationship management, and credit tool platforms that it utilizes.

He stated that they are still doing tests on it in a number of dealerships and that they anticipate a complete deployment in the coming months. "The preliminary findings of our work are really encouraging, and we anticipate that this will result in transactions that are both more expedient and more transparent for our clients."

Penske Automotive Group Inc. uses a variety of digital channels across its operation, including its Preferred Purchase program, automakers' branded digital programs, and Penske's proprietary site in the United Kingdom, according to Roger Penske, President and Chief Executive Officer of Penske Automotive Group Inc.

According to what Penske said a month ago, the company's "digital sales constituted roughly 5 percent of our overall unit sales" in the third quarter. Penske said that it retailed 109,969 new and used automobiles during the quarter; based on this information, about 5,500 of those vehicles came via the company's digital sales.

David Smith, the Chief Executive Officer of Sonic Automotive Inc., stated that the company's e-commerce platform was made available to customers across the country in June at EchoPark.com, the website for Sonic's EchoPark used-vehicle-only brand.

According to what Smith said a month ago, "omnichannel sales through our new e-commerce platform accounted for 31 percent of EchoPark's retail unit sales volume in the third quarter," which is an increase from the 19 percent that it accounted for in the second quarter. "Additionally, seven percent of EchoPark volume during the quarter was sold end-to-end online, as visitors continued to leverage our expanded omnichannel buying experience — with out-of-market purchasers representing sixty percent of our e-commerce sales,"

Omnichannel is a term that refers to both the technology and the procedures that are aimed at offering a seamless shopping experience for customers, regardless of whether they purchase in-store, online, or a combination of the two.

Last month, the Chief Executive Officer of AutoNation Inc., Mike Manley, told investors that more than fifty percent of AutoNation's car sales began on the company's digital channels during the preceding quarter.

"Through the mix of our digital tools and our physical assets," as Manley put it, "we've developed, and have continued to construct," a compelling customer value offer. "This is really important. It's more accurate to say that it's a mixture of the two of those things."

This paper was compiled with contributions from Jack Walsworth, John Huetter, and Gail Kachadourian Howe.