Shift Magazine - September 2021 - 8

How the
pandemic
is speeding
up adoption
of digital
retailing for
public groups
UNEXPECTED
ACCELERATION
BY JIM HENRY
C
OVID-related dealership shutdowns
last year greatly sped up
the previously slow and uneven
development and implementation
of online sales at dealerships.
As a result, " end-to-end " retail selling
and financing, performed entirely online,
are now available at hundreds of dealerships
and climbing.
Before last year, what most dealerships
considered " online selling " was mostly
collecting leads on the Web. At some
point before delivery, pretty much all customers
had to switch to doing business
in person at the dealership, especially to
get financing there and to get paperwork
signed. No longer.
FAST-FORWARD
" There are experts out there who say
COVID accelerated online adoption by 10
to 15 years in our industry, " said Heath
Byrd, CFO of retailer Sonic Automotive.
" It also accelerated giving the consumer
more optionality as to how they get the
car, " such as home delivery, he told Shift.
8
shift * september 2021
Public dealership groups are launching online sales platforms, such as Group 1's AcceleRide.
Since the pandemic began, the big,
publicly
traded
franchised
dealership
groups are all rolling out branded, online
sales platforms.
The most prominent online brands,
with the splashiest ambitions to go nationwide,
are Clicklane, at Asbury Automotive
Group; and Driveway, at Lithia Motors;
plus EchoPark, the standalone, used-only
sales channel at Sonic, which relies heavily
on its online sales platform.
AutoNation's omnichannel
brand
is
a
partnership with
AutoNation Express. Group 1 Automotive's
online retail platform is called AcceleRide.
And Penske Automotive Group in July
announced
Cox
Automotive to enable the online sale of
used vehicles in the U.S. through Penske's
CarShop used-vehicle centers and its franchised
dealerships.
Without a robust online retailing channel,
it's been difficult for the public groups
to create truly nationwide brands. Brickand-mortar
dealerships are still highly
Shift Magazine - September 2021

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