{"id":9647,"date":"2017-05-09T03:11:28","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T03:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/if-dealers-dont-embrace-full-digital-retailing-disrupters-will-step-in-says-mark-oneil\/"},"modified":"2017-05-09T03:11:28","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T03:11:28","slug":"if-dealers-dont-embrace-full-digital-retailing-disrupters-will-step-in-says-mark-oneil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/fr\/insights\/if-dealers-dont-embrace-full-digital-retailing-disrupters-will-step-in-says-mark-oneil\/","title":{"rendered":"Complete Digital Car Buy Year Away, Says Cox Automotive Exec"},"content":{"rendered":"\nThe ability to do car deals 100% online is about a year away, says Cox Automotive Chief Operating Officer Mark O\u2019Neil, who urges dealers to board the digital train today.\n
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\n\nIt\u2019s a matter of giving customers what they want \u2013 or else, he tells WardsAuto. \u201cWhen customers want something, they always get it.\n\n\u201cFundamentally, the consumer has learned to engage digitally in every other retail category: shoes, pizza, mortgages, electronics, books; pick any category. But the auto industry has held back in letting them do it.\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\n\u201cMy message is: Now\u2019s the time to embrace digital retailing. If the industry doesn\u2019t, someone will create a disruptive technology that will put the current dealer or manufacturer at risk.\u201d\n
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Consumers spend too much time on activities that are not a fun part of the car-buying process, he says, going down the list of available digital tools auto retailing can use to expedite car buying.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBefore his speech, \u201cConnected Retail: Deals in the Digital Age,\u201d at the 2017 Automotive Forum here, O\u2019Neil speaks with WardsAuto<\/em>.\n\nWardsAuto<\/em><\/strong>: You talk of the need for dealers to embrace digital. They might say they already have.\n\nO\u2019Neil<\/em><\/strong>: They might. But when you look at the data \u2013 we look at how enabled websites are to transact electronically \u2013 they are woefully under delivering.\n\nThere are dealers who are getting comfortable with things such as customers valuing their trade-ins online.\n\nAnd you see in financing that some dealers have calculators on their sites. But you need to get beyond that. Give the consumer pre-approved financing with a name bank. Not, \u201cCome in, and we\u2019ll get you financed.\u201d That\u2019s not the transparent, completed process.\n\nOne of the advantages of embracing digital retailing is the consumer does half the work. That reduces your cost structure as a dealer. By the way, the customers are happy doing that work. It\u2019s more convenient for them, too.\n\nWardsAuto<\/em><\/strong>: It\u2019s not a bear hug, but dealers and OEMs have embraced aspects of using the Internet to sell cars.\n\nO\u2019Neil<\/em><\/strong>: Everyone has embraced using digital for merchandising and increasing brand awareness. The industry has done a terrific job of letting customers use the Internet to research, shop and get pricing. But not, \u201cOK, now I want to buy it.\u201d That\u2019s a huge leap. The dealers who enable that will thrive.\n\nThe success behind Tesla<\/a><\/span> is as much about the customer\u2019s digital buying experience as about the car itself. It\u2019s a very self-directed process.\n\nWardsAuto<\/em><\/strong>: What\u2019s left to be done before the full deal can be done online?\n\nO\u2019Neil<\/em><\/strong>: All the pieces, absent one, now exist. That missing piece is the secured, legally binding contract. But we\u2019re getting real close to that.\n\nThe four tools that are available online are getting a real payment, getting pre-approved financing, seeing an F&I presentation (and selecting products that fit needs) and getting an offer on a trade. By embracing those four, you\u2019re 80% of the way there.\n\nAgain, other businesses fully embrace digital. Domino\u2019s Pizza today really is a technology company delivering pizza.\n\nWardsAuto<\/em><\/strong>: Will dealers become technology companies delivering cars?\n\nO\u2019Neil<\/em><\/strong>: If they do not embrace digital retailing, they\u2019ll be disrupted. The beauty of digital retailing is it\u2019s a win-win.\n\n \n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n\nAuthor –\u00a0Steve Finlay<\/a> <\/span>\u00a0| sfinlay@wardsauto.com\u00a0<\/span>\n\nCourtesy of\u00a0WardsAuto<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ability to do car deals 100% online is about a year away, says Cox Automotive Chief Operating Officer Mark O\u2019Neil, who urges dealers to board the digital train today. It\u2019s a matter of giving customers what they want \u2013 or else, he tells WardsAuto. \u201cWhen customers want something, they always get it. \u201cFundamentally, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dealers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autofacets.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}