Digitalization in Automotive Retail

Omni-Channel Integration in the Customer Journey

Observing and Exploring of Car Dealers in Germany

Our first study delves into the customer experience across online and offline platforms within 5 major OEMs. Conducted through 30+ dealer visits and observation frameworks, the study reveals that due to fragmented solutions, the customer journey often lacks consistency and faces frequent interruptions. Panoff Consulting’s findings indicate that a mere 52% of the available digitalization potential has been effectively utilized. Dive deeper into the details by continuing to read our study “Digitalization in Automotive Retail’

Status-Quo and Objectives

This study is an analysis of the status-quo and the basis for further recommendations for OEMs

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Status-quo

  • The automotive industry is changing which also forces to change automotive retail strategy and processes
  • Conservative operating behavior of automotive retailers
  • OEMs and retailers have a transactional focus
  • Consumers often pay multiple visits to (a variety of) the dealer(s)
  • Lacking transparency for vehicle buyers when it comes to vehicle prices and discounts
  • Strong competition from disruptors creating high customer centricity by exploiting (online) direct sales and potential for the traditional OEMs

Objectives

  • Analyzing the status quo regarding the degree digitalization in car sales
  • Exploring the integration of online and offline parameters of the customer journey
  • Benchmarking results and experiences between multiple top OEMs
  • Collecting real-world examples and insights from a customer perspective
  • Defining recommendations for OEMs and retailers in order to improve operations and customer experiences

Online – Online Sales Options

OEMs are experiencing with online sales and offer fully integrated online sales journey on a small scale

The first research questions analyses the extend of whether it is possible to accomplish buying a vehicle online and to what extent it is possible. The following variations of acquiring a vehicle have been identified and analyzed:

Feature
  • Purchasing a used vehicle
  • Leasing a used vehicle
  • Financing a used vehicle
  • Signing a mobility contract
  • Purchasing a new vehicle
  • Leasing a new vehicle
  • Financing a new vehicle
Feature
  • 0.5
  • 1
  • 0.5
  • 2
  • 1.5
  • 3
  • 1.5

Insights

At Volkswagen, only a very limited amount (around 100 out of 59.000) of new and used stock vehicles were available for online sales and leasing. Ongoing, the online shop is slightly difficult to find and integration with the configurator is lacking. Therefore, no points were allocated.

 

Mercedes-Benz offers all stock vehicles new and used online. Customers can decide if they either want to buy, lease or finance the vehicle. Mercedes-Benz also integrates the online shop with the configurator to attract customers for buying stock vehicles directly online.

BMW does not offer any type of online vehicle sales yet.
The Opel store mentions that they offer new vehicles on stock available for direct buying and leasing. However, during the investigation, only new vehicles for leasing were available (June 2021).

 

SEAT is currently not offering any online sales options to consumers. SEAT’s spinoff Cupra is out of the scope in this study.
Most of the OEMs investigated did not offer mobility contracts directly to the consumer.

 

However, the market landscape consists of a variety of third-party providers. Mercedes-Benz offers online only the full electric EQ vehicles in a mobility contract. None of the OEMs offers the possibility to buy a new car directly from the configurator.

Conclusion

OEMs do not fully exploit their potential in the digitalization of automotive retail

Our first study delves into the customer experience across online and offline platforms within 5 major OEMs. Conducted through 30+ dealer visits and observation frameworks, the study reveals that due to fragmented solutions, the customer journey often lacks consistency and faces frequent interruptions. Panoff Consulting’s findings indicate that a mere 52% of the available digitalization potential has been effectively utilized. Dive deeper into the details by continuing to read our study “Digitalization in Automotive Retail’

Register here for our study

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