How the acceleration of digital retailing will affect the auto industry long-term – Pete MacInnis, eLEND Solutions

Today on CBT News, anchor Jim Fitzpatrick is joined by Pete MacInnis, Founder and CEO of eLEND Solutions. His company offers automotive finance solutions focusing on providing a simplified vehicle purchase process for the retail automotive industry. eLEND has done a tremendous job aiding dealerships of all sizes in their efforts to digitalize their customer experience.

MacInnis begins the conversation with his takeaways from 2020 and what he expects in 2021. He says that the pandemic was relatable to the 2008 recession in the sense that industry leaders would rise up and find success among the chaos. Dealers had to make adjustments because they were forced to do business differently. MacInnis said that dealers were forced to learn the ins and outs of digital retailing. As many dealerships had to let employees go, general managers took on multiple hats, learning and reassessing the best way to conduct daily operations.

Digital retailing was all about adoption. Dealers who found success with it showed strong flexibility to find success. MacInnis said the forced shift to digital retailing was much needed for the industry as many dealers learned a new avenue of generating sales. MacInnis said that dealers started to realize they are capable of engaging with more consumers, specifically those customers who have no interest in coming to the dealership.

MacInnis concludes the conversation by saying that many consumers will still want that in-store experience. He says that many customers buy alternative vehicles from the original model they intended to purchase. This leads to many customers coming to the showroom to do a side-by-side comparison. MacInnis says that he firmly believes that most sales will continue to take place at the dealership, but a lot of the process will move online.