Finding strategies to incorporate finance and insurance products online may be the most challenging aspect of creating a holistic digital retail experience.
Many dealers offer educational materials about F&I products on their websites, but not everyone is willing to go all the way. Concerns over lost profits and removing the F&I manager from the process have made some dealers hesitant to put too much online or allow customers to outright purchase those products independently.
David Pryor, president of F&I product provider Safe-Guard, said most digital retailing solutions don't have F&I products baked in, which means most digital retailing solutions are incomplete.
"We've been talking about digital retail in this industry for a long time," he said. "And everybody said, 'It's coming, it's coming, it's coming.' I mean, it's getting closer. It's still not fully here."