New vehicle sales in December 2019 were 1,543,471, and we are expecting to have a similar December this year. Year-end sales events will froth the sales waters and energize buyers to get out there and buy or lease a new vehicle.
Are you ready for a second Covid-19 spike that will require you to meet this sales demand virtually?
Hopefully, all goes well, and we have a normal (non pandemic restricted) December with profitable sales events. Either way, there will be added interest by many customers in getting their December deal virtually. Many will remain vigilant about social distancing, and the digitally-focused that have always wanted to buy a vehicle online will be looking exclusively at digital retailing this December. These buyers will be a significant percentage of deals, and they want to complete their sale online. I also think it’s essential to understand how many deals will start online and then shift to the showroom to finalize the purchase.
I have seen various estimates of the percentage of sales that get completed online. The range is between 2-7% depending on new, used, Carvana, etc. That is not a very high percentage, but if you want a shot at those customers, you need to have an online buying process that delivers Pencil Perfect Contract Ready deals to your customers. They can do all the work online and pick up the vehicle (or get it delivered) at their convenience.
The more significant challenge is that many more deals are starting online and then getting finished at the dealership. I’ve read various articles with a wide range falling between 10% and 60% of sales starting online, so I am not sure there is a good number I can share in this article. However, the key takeaway from all those articles is that more and more deals are starting online.
This creates the current issue many dealers have where online deals are not syncing with your showroom desking tool, and customers are getting upset when online numbers don’t match showroom numbers. Online numbers that don’t match showroom numbers will be a significant issue during the hectic end of the year sales events. Instead of having your staff work to save deals, wouldn’t it be better to have them delivering vehicles to all the online buyers?
We developed CreditIQ’s Pencil Perfect Contract Ready digital retailing platform to give dealers an easy way to sell their inventory online. We know the future of auto sales will continue to move online, so we created a Contract Ready digital retailing platform. The bonus for us is that most digital retailing platforms didn’t do the hard work and are now creating customer issues by delivering “guesstimates” that have to be re-negotiated in the showroom.
Customers who start the buying process online are looking to shorten their time at the dealership during the buying process. A dealer who starts the sales process over when the customer walks into the showroom is likely to lose many of those customers or get bad CSI scores that damage their OEM incentive and co-op funds.
Getting your dealership on the right digital retailing platform is key to having a successful year-end sales season as well as a great 2021.
Let CreditIQ get you set up to deliver Pencil Perfect Contract Ready online deals for your end of year sales event and 2021. Contact us at – sales@creditiq.com or click below to learn more.
