Publics see progress with digital retailing

The nation's public auto retailers say they're making progress with their digital retailing initiatives, from expanding the tools' capabilities to getting more consumers to transact through the platforms.

Here are some of the results and initiatives the public retailers highlighted in their fourth-quarter financial results.

Asbury sold roughly 16,000 vehicles through its Clicklane digital sales tool between the second and fourth quarters of 2021, its first three full quarters of operation. More than 5,000 vehicles were sold through Clicklane in the fourth quarter — 47 percent of them new models — Dan Clara, Asbury's operations senior vice president, said on a February earnings call.

CEO David Hult told analysts on the call that Clicklane innovation and growth is a key company goal for 2022. This will include deploying Clicklane into Asbury's new locations, including dozens of Larry H. Miller Dealerships group stores that Asbury closed on in late 2021.

The platform delivered $570 million in revenue over its three quarters and generated an incremental 7 percent to Asbury's same-store sales growth, Hult said on the call.

"Clicklane continues to deliver impressive metrics," Hult told analysts.

The nation's largest new-vehicle retailer said in its fourth-quarter earnings presentation that it is focused on combining its physical stores with its digital tools, including its AutoNation Express online sales platform, to provide value to customers.

"I'm an incredibly strong believer that you need to combine a seamless and smooth digital platform with the bricks-and-mortar fulfillment centers because they also provide some necessary infrastructure and refurbishment work on your vehicles," CEO Mike Manley said on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.

"So just purely from a logistics perspective, and where those vehicles can be bought and where those vehicles may need to be sent to get to consumers, I think the combination of both ... is the most powerful," he added. "Because I still know people that go into a store to look at a coffee maker before they buy it. And there's nothing wrong with doing that, and that will still continue with buying used cars for some people."

Sales on Group 1's AcceleRide digital platform grew 77 percent year over year in 2021, with 19,586 vehicles sold on the platform, the company said during its fourth-quarter earnings presentation. Roughly half of the vehicles sold through Group 1 in the fourth quarter involved at least one step on AcceleRide, the retailer said.

Group 1 is rolling out AcceleRide to dealerships in the Northeast that the retailer acquired last year from Prime Automotive Group, Daryl Kenningham, Group 1's president of U.S. operations, said on last month's earnings call.

He added that the company sees more growth ahead on the platform.

"We did 20,000 units last year. We feel like there's still more upside from there, obviously, and it'll become a bigger and bigger piece of our business," Kenningham told analysts. "We don't have targets that we share externally with it. But I think if you look back at our growth with AcceleRide since we launched it, I think you can expect to continue to see that same kind of growth moving forward."

Lithia said in January that its Driveway omnichannel retailing platform achieved 1,650 transactions in December, beating its goal for the month by 32 percent.

In February, CEO Bryan DeBoer said on Lithia's fourth-quarter earnings call that more than 2,000 transactions took place through Driveway.

The average distance a vehicle was shipped through Driveway was 932 miles, DeBoer said on the call. He added that that distance could become "meaningfully less" once the Driveway network has achieved full capability and vehicle inventory levels normalize.

"With a little over a year since Driveway entered the marketplace, we are excited with the positive response it's receiving from consumers, the growing brand awareness and how it is expanding our reach beyond the local markets in which our Lithia channel operates," he told analysts.

"Over 97 percent of our transactions were incremental to Lithia or Driveway and have never transacted with us in the past 15 years."

Penske CEO Roger Penske told analysts on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call that the dealership group sold 10,500 vehicles — 4 percent of its U.S. sales — through its Preferred Purchase tool in 2021.

In addition, he said on the call, 14 percent of customers used the Preferred Purchase platform to start their vehicle purchase last year. The platform is available for new, used and certified pre-owned vehicles at Penske's franchised dealerships. The company also offers an online retail tool, co-developed with Cox Automotive, at its CarShop used-vehicle-only stores in the U.S.

"We continue to grow, expand and enhance our digital footprint," Penske told analysts.

Steve Wittman, Sonic's chief digital officer, said on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call that Sonic rolled out a proprietary digital sales tool in North Carolina and recently expanded it to South Carolina.

CEO David Smith said the tool was launched for Sonic's EchoPark used-vehicle division in late 2021. Ninety percent of the vehicles sold online have been shipped from outside North Carolina.

Consumers who have used the tool "talk about the simplicity of it, the ability to go end-to-end online in an automated way, with no human interaction, and also the transparency," Wittman told analysts.

Smith said on the call that Sonic anticipates launching the digital platform to its entire EchoPark network this year.

Melissa Burden, Jack Walsworth and John Huetter contributed to this report.