DW, first of all, welcome to the forum. As I read your post, I sense a mixture of opinion, emotion, experience and a bit of how you would like things to be (which is entirely fine).
We've had our shopping cart in live production now for well over a year. These things take a while to get right and we are still far from what I would call "full efficiency." That said, I have the following experience and comment based upon what is happening with dealers using the Ai-Dealer shopping cart for vehicles and F+I:
I don't believe the consumer will ever feel completely comfortable purchasing a new vehicle via the Internet without some human interaction.
Ai-Dealer experience: There are a lot of consumers out there with a vast spectrum of needs and feelings about the car buying experience. All and none are extremes. It won't be "all" that will buy this way and
it already isn't "none" either since that threshold was past more than a year ago.
So it is not will they or won't they, but how many will?
But even that question misses most of the main points about how the ecommerce shopping cart gets deployed strategically. To me, the correct questions are:
- "Will more consumers identify themselves to dealers in order to be able to shop deeper into the process online?"
- "Does the self-serve nature of the shopping cart build trust online?"
- "What is the role of consumer self-serve in increasing car dealer sales efficiency"
I am not familiar with what tried at Kaiser. Based upon consumer feedback was it too difficult to find what they were looking for (i.e. the correct vehicle)? A shopping experience that only included car and price or was it inclusive of the entire consumer purchase consideration criteria and dealer profit centers (credit, interest rates, rebates, trade in, extended warranties, tax, title, fees, montly payments, etc.)?
People do still buy based upon feelings... that was exactly what the consumer (Ashley Marshall in the article) was communicating. Most of the feelings many dealers are referring to are not positive ones that consumers experience in the showroom... and those are the principle drivers behind why consumers are online.
I don't think it is the case here, but the trade in has become a crutch for those who don't want to change. In the shopping cart, a detailed trade questionaire is used. Kelley or Black Book - it doesn't matter to us. Dealer discloses that even after deal is submitted, value will be confirmed prior to arranging delivery + still subject to condition confirmation. If condition is not per the detailed trade evaluation, the delta is adjusted into the deal. Consumer can choose to continue or not. Any reasonable process that does not violate trust works.
The Ai-Dealer shopping cart guides consumers through credit, then interest rate + rebate combinations by term on the way to the consumer arranging their own financing. This is where Ai-Dealer's program extends the term "shopping cart" and is different from how you would understand a shopping cart in other industries... it is not car, price, credit card to buy... it is a consumer guided desking and F+I experience...
And I do agree with you... profit is not a dirty word, dealers will either get this or have a difficult time making money, consumers will pay for a better experience... so get out of the way and let them get it from you.
