We believe the industry’s response is best planned around four areas of activity:

Connected Customer: Putting the customer at the centre of your company. Solutions include multi-channel digital shopping tools that support sales of new and used vehicles from multiple brands plus interactions with finance institutions. Next best actions can be automatically recommended and paperwork eliminated.
Connected Vehicle: Making the car a node on the network. For example, telematics provided by OEMs can be tailored to provide services that meet local requirements, and integrated with customer retention tools that provide a 360° customer view.
Connected Insights: Transforming data into competitive advantage. Forward-looking analytics help retailers anticipate sales and get the product mix right. Applying analytics to retailers’ own data and market data together can give a view that spans multiple brands and OEMs, as well as local customer tastes.
Connected Operations: Transforming operations to improve profitability. Lot management and vehicle processing solutions enable efficient orchestration of all the work needed on a vehicle. Asset management solutions track fleet vehicle assets, depreciation, location, service records and service needs.

Retailers, large dealer groups, and distributors need to:

introduce standard ways of working without losing the local touch and flavor;
find the right balance between new and used car sales, and selling complementary products such as finance and insurance;
ensure the online and offline experience combine seamlessly for the end-customer;
decide how to leverage customer and vehicle data for the benefit of all parties – not least the consumer.