Digital Retailing Articles, Insights & Research | Cox Automotive Inc.

Case Study: How Clark Knapp Honda Speeds Up Sales 12/29/2019 A FASTER BUYING PROCESS TRANSCENDS INCOME LEVELS Family-owned Clark Knapp Honda sits ten miles from the U.S/Mexico border in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. Its market spans over 150 miles with 1.5 million people. The Valley has a higher than average poverty rate, which can translate to lower internet access. That may explain why no dealerships in the area offered digital retailing tools. Clark Knapp Honda saw… Read Article

Digital Retailing Sales

Offers are Options: Here’s How Digital Retailing Helps You Get to the Final Deal 12/20/2019 “Look, digital retailing and the transparency it brings is not the issue. And the ‘race to the bottom?’ That’s the reality of the car business today – sure, it started with the internet, but customers have always been willing to travel four hours to save 500 bucks on a $30,000 car. That's not going to change.” —Digital Retailing Dealer Welcome to the upside-down world of price and… Read Article

Digital Retailing Sales

The High Cost of Poor-Quality Leads 11/11/2019 Time is money – and one of the most significant ways for dealers to waste both is chasing bad leads. Typically, the biggest problem for dealers isn’t getting enough leads, but rather, how to correctly manage the many they do have and how to distinguish the good leads from the bad ones. While ignoring leads can result in lost sales, there is a balance between following… Read Article

Digital Retailing Merchandising Lead Quality Marketing

5 Ways to Differentiate Your Dealership from the Competition 10/29/2019 It’s well-documented that car buyers think buying a car takes too long. They want to find their car online, agree on a price and trade-in value, and do their paperwork before ever going to the dealership.1 But you’ve already started to solve those challenges by using digital retailing at your store. Now it’s time to let your potential customers know: you’ve got a better way than… Read Article

Digital Retailing Marketing Sales

Case Study: The Art of the Digital Deal 09/24/2019 OPENING VIRTUAL DOORS Driver’s Village has always prioritized its customers wants and needs. Faced with the harsh winter climate of upstate New York, the group converted an obsolete 90-acre regional mall into the country’s only auto mall with 20 franchises under one roof. This unique business model made shopping easier and more pleasant for customers. So, when digital retailing took off and a segment of customers… Read Article

Digital Retailing Case Study Sales

Make Meaningful Connections & Sell an Experience 09/11/2019 Here we are in 2019, and it’s fair to assume that just about every dealership general manager or sales manager in America has heard about digital retailing. It’s also a reasonable assumption that some are all-in when it comes to adopting digital retailing, while others remain skeptical – and even more are unclear about the potential benefits to their business. The confusion is understandable. On its… Read Article

Digital Retailing Marketing Sales

So You Bought a Digital Retail Solution. Now What? 06/13/2019 You took the step and made the investment in digital retailing. Congratulations! Now comes the hard part: implementation. To do it right, it takes the right attitude, a strategic plan, and a relentless focus on the team. Below are some best practices that will help you get from implementation to results in less time – and with less heartache. Shift Your Perspective Leads: Digital retailing creates… Read Article

Digital Retailing Marketing Sales

2019 Car Buyer Journey Study 06/04/2019 CONSUMERS INCREASINGLY FEEL THAT OWNING A CAR IS TOO EXPENSIVE Nearly half of consumers feel like owning or leasing a vehicle is becoming too expensive (see Diagram A).1 The percentage of vehicles costing more than $50K has, in fact, grown from 6% in 2012 to 23% in 2018. This increase in new car prices, coupled with rising interest rates, has created a bigger gap between new… Read Article

Digital Retailing Research shopper insights Car Buyer Journey Sales Marketing

Case Study: Closing Deals with Digital Retailing 03/26/2019 OVERVIEW: A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Founded in 1988 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, family-owned Frankman Motor Company is now the largest independent used car dealership in a five-state area. It stocks approximately 250 vehicles at a time, in addition to over 90 classics from the 1920’s and beyond that ships to buyers across the globe – the majority who buy sight unseen. The experience with its classics… Read Article

Digital Retailing Case Study Sales

Making Car Buying Cool Again 02/07/2019 If you’re a dealer who hasn’t embraced digital retailing – you’ve already fallen behind the pace of commerce. You could blame Amazon for its convenient, right time/right product/right place approach to online commerce, and you would not be far off: The “Amazon Effect” has disrupted many retailers. Yet while people think of the Amazon Effect in terms of shuttered brick and mortar stores, the real impact… Read Article

Digital Retailing Sales