Bring Modern Convenience to the Showroom Floor

In our technology-driven world, we’ve taken modern convenience to a whole-new level. Consumers expect to order what they need online and have it delivered at warp speed. The expectation of convenience carries over to car shopping. Consumers expect to do more steps online and spend minimal time in the dealership. While it used to be that modern retail capabilities online and in store were a competitive advantage, now they’re a must to earn business and maintain your dealership’s profitability.

Convenience to Customers

Time is a valuable commodity, and all customers want a faster car-buying experience. Yet, the automotive industry lags other industries when it comes to meeting this demand. For example, many dealers implement digital retail tools on their websites but view the work a customer does online as a lead instead of a sale in progress. This lead perspective forces consumers to repeat steps in the showroom that they’ve already completed online, lengthening the process and sparking frustration.

Today’s consumers want better options. As inventories rise, the experience at the dealership is fluctuating. In the most recent CDK Ease of Purchase Scorecard, 29% of buyers spent more time than they expected at the dealership, up from 26% the month before.

Anything that makes the process easier for consumers just makes good business sense for dealers. That’s why leading dealers are bringing modern convenience to the showroom floor by having salespeople use the same digital retail platform in store that customers use at home.

Salespeople use a tablet to pull up the work a customer has done online and then work side by side to build a first pencil (with dealership-set guardrails). This is a streamlined approach that also builds collaboration as the customer feels the salesperson is working with them to find the best deal.

This approach can also help improve the vehicle delivery experience. Deals flow automatically to the desking platform and F&I without having to re-key information, speeding deal finalization.

Convenience for Your Dealership

Consumers aren’t the only ones to benefit from more modern shopping tools in the showroom. Above and beyond the benefits that come with giving consumers the experience they expect, salespeople benefit by being able to work faster and smarter, and close more deals in less time.

According to the 2022 NADA Academy Study, unit sales per salesperson jump from 10.8 to 16 when they use a digital retail tool all the way through the showroom. This is due to being able to work multiple deals at one time and to honoring the work customers do at home to limit inefficiencies and pave the way for faster in-store experiences.

An Efficient Showroom Workflow

As your dealership looks for ways to go the extra mile for customers, it means leveraging technology solutions to make the buying process fast, easy and customer-friendly. Speedier deals through modern conveniences in the showroom floor will become an expected part of your business in the minds of consumers and a key part of your dealership’s profitability.

Bringing convenience to your showroom doesn’t have to be a major undertaking. It can be as simple as equipping a top salesperson with a tablet loaded with a digital retail tool. That’s a safe starting point to work out any kinks before rolling it out to the rest of the Sales team.

If you update your showroom processes, you can offer a modern experience and take full advantage of the many benefits (to your dealership and consumers) that a seamless online-to-in-store digital shopping solution affords.