Building a digital vehicle purchase path

Many consumers are accustomed to using technology to purchase goods and services, big and small. Shopping for a vehicle is no exception. Buyers are eager to embrace digital tools designed to help them find the car of their dreams at the price point they can afford.

Because buying a car requires more research beforehand, the earliest you can reach a customer in the funnel, the easier it will be to guide them to a sale.

When tasked with building an online consumer-driven purchase process, you want to align with a partner that can help you develop an experience suited for all customers, no matter where they begin the process. To take advantage of all the solutions at your disposal and to keep up with consumer expectations, dealers, OEMs, FinTechs, and other vehicle industry players must select flexible solutions that can continue to grow as business models evolve. Choosing an active and adaptable integration partner like RouteOne helps you get going and stay ahead of the curve.

Digital Retail Solutions to Consider

Companies catering to auto finance clients could look for an all-in-one digital retail product. Search for a solution that offers consumers intuitive tools for financing, trade-in, credit application, and aftermarket sales that can all live on a dealership's website. Businesses should be able to set the best course for their goals, like tracking consumer progress and leads, custom notifications, prequalification, payment calculators, protection product education and selection, and more. Arming consumers with the tools they need to find their next vehicle in their own environment successfully helps instill long-term satisfaction and loyalty.

If you are looking to build your own digital retailing solution and want to pick and choose from features a la carte, widgets are a quick and easy way to get started. When you leverage widgets or more robust web services from an established partner, you can create an online presence faster and with less effort.

If you want to expand to your own interface later, you should choose an integration partner that can help you start your journey now and have room for expansion later.

Solutions you can add with widgets include:

Online Credit Application Processing

Accepting credit applications is one of the first steps in financing. Many customers are willing to visit the dealership but prefer not to spend excessive time in the F&I office. By allowing them to complete the credit application and approval process online, the customer can save time during their showroom visit, while the dealership can also streamline their delivery process.

Consider harnessing the power of the online RouteOne Credit Application to close out a customer's digital shopping experience before they visit a dealership.

You can take the tech a step further and set up services for notifications and other add-ons. The point is for dealers to set the rules that best fit their business.

Offering Aftermarket Product Selection

A focal point for profitability that is sometimes overlooked is aftermarket sales. Omitting protection product sales from an online or remote process could become costly.

Educating consumers online and presenting the value of products designed to protect their investment can be easy. Strive to provide a personalized customer experience while dealers remain in control of the presentation. 

With the RouteOne aftermarket product selection widget, dealers can display real-time aftermarket pricing on their website and receive notifications when a consumer selects products.

Payoff and Customer Quotes

More consumers want the power to independently handle financial decisions when purchasing a car. They want to determine the value of their trade-in and the payment for the new vehicle to determine what sort of buying power they possess.

With a Customer Quote solution, you can help dealers provide an estimated vehicle payment within their system. You can decide on whether taxes and fees are to be included in this estimate. Plus, you could receive a specific dealer’s taxes and fees broken out at a detailed level, with information on incentives to be included in the payment calculation.

Payoff Quote Service Dealers can retrieve the payoff on a vehicle a customer is currently financing.

Consumers Don’t Want to Wait

The era of long wait times in the F&I office is over.

Rise to the challenge of the modern car buyer’s expectations and embrace the technology that can help pave a new path to success.

Adding Digital Retail to your toolbelt is not “giving in” to exclusively selling cars online. Instead, a robust solution will allow dealers to monitor and control the process from the first lead entered on the website to the last signature captured electronically. There is not just offline or online selling anymore; every sale can be a hybrid that seamlessly connects the online and in-store process.

About RouteOne

RouteOne was formed in 2002 by Ally Financial, Ford Motor Credit Company, TD Auto Finance, and Toyota Financial Services to improve the F&I process for automobile dealers and their customers. Connecting thousands of dealers and finance sources in North America for vehicle financing, RouteOne's platform delivers a comprehensive suite of F&I solutions across multiple channels: in-store, online, mobile, and via third-party solutions. Their product line-up includes credit application, eContracting, menu, online/mobile retail services, and compliance. In addition, RouteOne enables dealer choice across a wide variety of best-in-class providers through open integrations with 200+ DSPs. More information is available at RouteOne.com.

Alexander Mandeville Bio

Alexander Mandeville is the Director of the OEM Strategy and Strategic Accounts team, leading engagement with partners and OEMs utilizing RouteOne's services to build new and unique processes in the F&I space. Before taking on these responsibilities, Alex spent 13 years at RouteOne in roles of increasing responsibility, focusing on taking RouteOne's Credit Application, eContracting, and Menu solutions to the marketplace. With RouteOne's expanding toolset, Alex has focused on helping DSPs and OEMs create modern consumer experiences. When Alex isn't working with DSPs and OEMs on enhancing customer experiences or at the park with his wife and toddlers, he can be found in the woods or on the water, depending on the season, in Michigan's great outdoors.

Visit RouteOne to learn more.