The domain of automotive retail is undergoing a significant change, as an increasing number of automobile brands and dealership strive to transform the customer experience, drive loyalty and boost market share. As Mark Gilbert Scottsdale AZ says, major changes in the operating environment and within the auto retail ecosystem are forcing automakers and dealerships to rethink their retail strategies. These changes include shifts in mobility preferences, the rise of new mobility concepts, as well as evolving digitization trends and regulations.
Mark Gilbert Scottsdale AZ sheds light on the future of automotive retail
Consumers today want to access desired information across channels with ease. To cater to this need, auto brands are trying to transform their retail models to deliver a rich brand experience through seamless integration across varied customer-facing channels. In this situation, it becomes vital to address challenges like how to shift from a product-driven to a customer-centric approach, as well as how to provide mobility services on the basis of value propositions rather than ownership.
The rise of shared access and the emergence of autonomous vehicles essentially forces a rethinking of almost every component of the car purchase and ownership process. With more consumers migrating to shared mobility, this trend can make many established processes irrelevant for a large swath of the population. Hence, it has become vital for auto retailers and dealerships to transform their processes as per the current trends to meet the market requirements and ensure continued success.
While vehicle performance is undoubtedly extremely important, in consumer expectations are compelling auto retailers to focus more on experiences and relationships. It is time that OEMs and auto dealers undertake a clear-eyed assessment of their businesses in order to transform their processes as per the future mobility ecosystem.
The fundamental shifts underway in the mobility ecosystem do create many challenges for automotive players, by undermining certain long-standing assumptions of personal car ownership on which many business models are built. Apart from effectively responding to the growing demands of the modern consumers, auto dealers also need to prepare for certain transformative changes that are likely to require a reimagining of what it means to be an auto retailer.
Even though an increasing number of automotive consumers are conducting their research online, a lot of them still prefer the human-element of in-person experiences. Many consumers especially enjoy the convenience provided by auto retailers who deliver both online and in-person experiences. In the future, instead of operating in separate lanes, online-only automotive retailers may collaborate with physical manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers to order to deliver a “bricks and clicks” experience. As Mark Gilbert Scottsdale AZ mentions, an auto parts retailer offering targeted website content to consumers and then connecting them to in-person centers for test drives and purchase completions is a great example of this in action. In this situation, both the retailers and physical centers benefit from tapping into each other’s network. The trend toward digitalization of automotive retail has been building for a long time, and the pandemic especially provided a steady push to it.
