Next stepping stone for the digital dealership

Lifestyle Europe has started selling new cars to retail buyers directly on its website.

“We‘re looking to secure our place in a new era of vehicle purchasing,” says Peter Isted, Lifestyle Europe’s MD. “Web- based car sales have grown rapidly over recent years, and the business opportunity is clear.

“We’re expecting no more than a 10% take-up from this initially. But I think consumers are becoming more confident about buying online – especially from established, reputable companies. Innovation is at the heart of our business and we have taken the decision to lead rather than follow when it comes to online sales.”

The company has been selling parts successfully through e-commerce for some time, and now has a ‘reserve facility’ on the website where customers can leave a deposit on a used vehicle.

“That has been very popular over the past several months and we see our latest initiative as the next stepping stone,” says Peter.

Live chat sells cars
He adds: “We have a ‘value my car’ feature on the site where customers can request an online evaluation – subject to viewing, of course. We also have a live chat facility, which generates a lot of traffic. It sells a lot of vehicles, in fact we have three people working on it full time – encouraging customers to get an online valuation and also to come into the showroom. We’re looking at upgrading to live video chat before September.”

Ford focus
Lifestyle, which has ten multi-brand dealerships across Kent, Sussex and Surrey, is selling new Fords only online to start with, and Peter anticipates that the bulk of web-based sales will be for small mid-sized family models, such as Fiesta and Focus, typically retailing at under £15,000. He expects the online sales initiative to attract new customers, and believes that demand through his network of franchised outlets will not suffer. “It gets us out to a wider audience,” he says.

500 new Fords in stock
“Ford is our mainstay franchise and we normally run with about 500 new vehicles in our stocking compound,” says Peter. “That allows us to offer immediate delivery on a wide range of Fords, whereas with our other brands we don’t hold so much stock.

“If it’s a special there will have to be a factory order, but the idea is that the customer can go in and see what we’ve actually got. Our DMS is Kerridge, and we spent a lot of time putting together a facility that would allow us to display our stock. It changes constantly, but as soon as a new model is available they can see it.”

E-commerce platform
The initiative is underpinned by an all-new Auto Ecommerce platform developed by automotive web marketing firm GForces.

Auto Ecommerce allows Lifestyle customers to browse through available stock, compare prices and reviews at What Car?, take a virtual test drive, and enquire about finance offers before completing the purchase online via a secure payment system.
 

Your action plan

• Offer a reserve facility for used cars online
• Offer online p/x valuations
• Offer a live chat option
• Set up a secure online payment system
• Sell parts and accessories directly online initially