The Current State of Retail Friction
What’s the CDK Modern Retail Suite?
The Core of Connection: CDK CRM and Intelligence
Solve the Duplicate Lead Crisis
Enhance Engagement With CRM Video
Bridge the Gap: Automotive Digital Retailing
The Omnichannel Handoff
Desk With Precision
Streamline the Close: F&I Software and Contracting
The Digital F&I Workflow
Interactive Menu Selling
eContracting and Funding
The Role of AI in Modern Retail
A Platform for Innovation: Connecting ISVs
Driving the Future Together

The automotive retail landscape is shifting rapidly. For Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), dealership leaders and industry partners, the challenge is no longer just about inventory levels or interest rates. It’s about the fundamental architecture of the customer relationship and the efficiency of the workflow that supports it.

In an era where affordability concerns are paramount and consumer patience is thinning, the technology stack powering the Front Office can’t be a collection of disjointed point solutions. It must be a unified ecosystem. The CDK Modern Retail Suite represents this unified approach, connecting the disparate threads of automotive retail from the first digital click to the final signature in the F&I office.

By integrating digital retail, robust CRM capabilities, and advanced F&I software, we’re helping the industry move beyond simple transaction management to true relationship building. This deep dive explores how the Modern Retail Suite addresses current friction points, leverages artificial intelligence, and creates a seamless workflow that benefits dealers, OEMs and software partners alike.

The Current State of Retail Friction

To understand why a modernized suite is necessary, we must first look at the data defining the current market. According to the 2026 Friction Points Study from CDK, the industry is facing a paradox. Dealers are staffing up, yet customer satisfaction scores are volatile.

In 2025, dealerships saw a significant hiring increase, with the average Sales team growing to 14.7 representatives — an 80% increase over the previous year. Yet, despite having more boots on the ground, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) for shoppers who completed their deal at the dealership dropped from +48 in 2024 to +29 in 2025. Even more alarming, the NPS for online-only shoppers plummeted to zero.

This data tells a clear story: Adding more people to broken processes doesn’t fix the experience. The friction points remain stubborn:

Negotiating Price: Twenty-seven percent of shoppers cited this as a major issue.
Waiting on F&I: Twenty-three percent of buyers are still frustrated by the queue for the Finance office.
Additional Fees: Twenty percent of consumers felt annoyed by unexpected costs.

Time remains the ultimate currency. The study reveals that when a deal is completed in under one hour, the NPS skyrockets to +54. However, if the process drags beyond four hours, the score drops into negative territory at -3.

What’s the CDK Modern Retail Suite?

The CDK Modern Retail Suite is an advanced, fully integrated solution within the CDK Dealership Xperience platform designed to unify the entire customer-to-dealer buying journey into one seamless, omnichannel experience.

Through a single ecosystem, information seamlessly flows between digital retail tools, the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, and Finance and Insurance (F&I) software, eliminating redundant tasks that slow down the Sales process. This cohesive architecture improves transparency, so Sales staff can instantly view up-to-date deal structures and customer histories at every point in the journey.

Dealerships can deliver a faster, more consultative experience, which enhances satisfaction for customers while enabling higher transaction volumes for the business. Ultimately, this commitment to efficiency and clarity sets the foundation for stronger relationships between OEMs, dealers and customers.

The Core of Connection: CDK CRM and Intelligence

At the heart of any modern retail operation lies the CRM system. However, in today's dealership environment, an “automotive CRM” must be more than a digital Rolodex. It needs to be an active intelligence hub that drives action.

Solve the Duplicate Lead Crisis

One of the most pervasive issues cited by dealership employees in the 2025 Friction Points Study is the managing duplicate leads. In fact, 40% of employees listed duplicate leads in the CRM as a top pain point. When data is siloed or systems don't communicate, Sales teams waste valuable time chasing the same customer through different channels, leading to embarrassment for the dealer and annoyance for the shopper.

The CDK Modern Retail Suite addresses this through advanced data hygiene and integration. By ensuring that CDK CRM speaks the same language as the digital retailing tools and the DMS, we create a single view of the customer. When a shopper submits a lead online, calls the store or walks into the showroom, the system recognizes them. This clarity allows Sales staff to focus on selling rather than administrative cleanup.

Enhance Engagement With CRM Video

A powerful enhancement to our CRM capabilities is the integration of video tools directly into the workflow. In a market where trust is fragile, video offers a transparent way to bridge the gap between digital and physical interactions.

Sales consultants can now record and send personalized vehicle walk-arounds, introduction videos or appointment confirmations directly through the CRM platform. This isn't just a novelty; it’s a conversion tool. A personalized video demonstrates effort and transparency, addressing the "relationship" aspect of the sale before the customer ever steps foot on the lot. It allows the customer to see the specific VIN, verify the condition, and establish a human connection with their Sales representative.

For OEMs and management teams, this feature provides visibility into how the brand is being represented. It ensures that the digital communication matches the in-store experience, maintaining brand integrity across every touchpoint.

Bridge the Gap: Automotive Digital Retailing

The concept of digital retail in automotive has matured. It’s no longer about simply putting a payment calculator on a website. It’s about creating a transactional runway that lands smoothly in the showroom.

The Omnichannel Handoff

The 2026 Friction Points Study highlights a critical moment of truth: the handoff. When a salesperson acknowledges and incorporates the information a customer provided online, the NPS stands at a healthy +22. However, when that data is lost — forcing the customer to repeat themselves — satisfaction dips. CDK Modern Retail Suite ensures this continuity. When a customer builds a deal online — selecting a vehicle, estimating a trade-in value, and reviewing payment options — that structure flows directly into the in-store desking solution. There’s no "online price" versus "showroom price." There’s just one consistent deal structure.

This transparency directly combats the 27% of shoppers who cited price negotiation as a primary problem. When the Sales team pulls up the exact deal the customer built at home, the conversation shifts from adversarial negotiation to consultative confirmation.

Desk With Precision

Modern desking tools within the suite allow managers to work multiple deal scenarios simultaneously — lease, finance or cash — in seconds. This speed is vital. Remember: For every hour the process takes, NPS drops by approximately 13 points.

By integrating lender rates, incentives and residuals directly into the desking flow, Sales Managers can present accurate, pennable deals immediately. This eliminates the "back and forth" to the tower that has historically plagued the car-buying process. For the OEM, this ensures that captive lender programs and manufacturer incentives are applied correctly and consistently, maximizing the utilization of national offers.

Streamline the Close: F&I Software and Contracting

The transition from Sales to F&I is often where the momentum of a sale stalls. While wait times have improved — 41% of shoppers now wait between 15 and 30 minutes, an improvement over previous years — nearly a quarter of customers still find the wait unacceptable.

The Digital F&I Workflow

The F&I components of the CDK Modern Retail Suite are designed to turn the F&I office from a bottleneck into a profit center. This begins with the interview process. Digital interview tools allow F&I Managers to gather information about driving habits and risk factors before presenting products. This data-driven approach allows for a tailored menu presentation that feels like a service rather than a sales pitch.

Interactive Menu Selling

Standard paper menus are static and often overwhelming. The suite’s digital menu solutions are interactive and engaging. They allow customers to self-select packages and see the impact on their monthly payment in real time.

This transparency addresses the "additional fees" friction point. When a customer clearly sees what a Vehicle Service Contract or Tire and Wheel protection covers — and exactly what it costs — they’re more likely to see value rather than just an added expense. The software ensures that every product presented is compliant and relevant to the specific vehicle and buyer profile.

eContracting and Funding

The efficiency gains continue after the customer says "yes." Integrated eContracting capabilities mean that forms are populated automatically with data from the DMS and desking tools. Signatures are captured digitally, ensuring that no forms are missed and no signatures are skipped.

For the dealer, this means faster funding. Contracts are validated before submission, reducing the number of contracts in transit (CIT) and improving cash flow. For the OEM and captive lenders, this ensures high-quality, compliant contract packages that can be processed with minimal manual intervention.

The Role of AI in Modern Retail

AI is the engine that powers these efficiency gains. It isn’t an abstract concept; it’s a practical tool delivering measurable results.

According to CDK research, 39% of dealers have adopted AI solutions as of 2025, with nearly half of those using it specifically in Variable Operations. The impact is quantifiable: Dealers using AI in their retail processes saw a 53% improvement in their lead-to-close ratio.

Within the CDK Modern Retail Suite, AI works in the background to surface opportunities and automate mundane tasks.

Predictive Engagement: AI analyzes customer behavior to suggest the right time to reach out and the right message to send.
Inventory Intelligence: It helps dealers understand which vehicles are in demand in their specific market, aiding in smarter stocking decisions.
Dealership Efficiency: By automating data entry and lead routing, AI frees up the expanded Sales staff to focus on human interactions — the empathy and guidance that software can’t replicate.

A Platform for Innovation: Connecting ISVs

The automotive ecosystem is vast, and no single company can solve every niche challenge alone. This is why the CDK Modern Retail Suite is built on an open architecture. We aim to create a platform that connects the automotive retail industry, allowing Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to innovate alongside us.

For ISVs, integrating with the Modern Retail Suite means gaining access to a secure, standardized flow of data. It allows developers to build specialized apps — whether for inventory photography, specialized marketing or niche F&I products — that plug directly into the dealer’s core workflow.

This openness fosters a culture of collaboration. We invite new and existing vendors to share in our vision of a connected future. By working together, we ensure that dealers have access to the best tools in the market without the headache of disjointed data or broken integrations.

Driving the Future Together

The path forward for automotive retail is clear. It requires a move away from fragmented processes and toward a unified, efficient and customer-centric workflow. The CDK Modern Retail Suite provides the infrastructure to make this transition possible.

For OEMs, it offers the data visibility and brand consistency required to steer global strategies. For dealers, it delivers the Digital Retail, CRM and F&I tools needed to lower costs, speed up transactions, and improve customer satisfaction scores. And for our partners, it offers a stable foundation for innovation.

The friction points of today — long wait times, negotiation stress and disconnected data — are solvable. If you embrace a modern retail approach, you can turn these challenges into opportunities for growth, loyalty and sustained profitability. The technology is ready. The data is clear. It’s time to modernize the retail experience.

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