General Motors is hoping to move forward the new car shopping process by encouraging customers to buy vehicles online.
Although automakers have be dabbling in online sales for years, GM is looking to finally move the practice into the mainstream with its Shop-Click-Drive program, which allows customers to buy new cars without ever stepping foot in a dealership.
“We want people to start buying cars over the Internet,” CEO Dan Akerson told the Detroit Free Press.
Akerson quickly added that he doesn’t want to completely cut dealers from the equation, but sees online shopping as the wave of the future.
So far about 1,000 customers have purchased new vehicles through GM’s Shop-Click-Drive program – which is being used by 100 dealers in eight states – but less than 10 have signed the dotted line without visiting the dealer in person first.
David Westcott, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, notes that most buyers “want to shop on the Internet and then come into the dealership to take a test-drive and finalize the overall transaction.”
Although some buyers are opting to skip the dealership experience altogether, the lead generation created by Shop-Click-Drive is proving lucrative for most dealers.
“The dealers like it because they’re getting very high-quality leads and they’re closing these leads at a much higher rate than other third-party leads that they get from other sources,” GM spokeswoman Ryndee Carney said.
Akerson made it clear that GM isn’t trying to replicate Tesla’s sales model, which does not include a dealer network.
Akerson also views the online initiative as a way to lure so-called Millennial shoppers that already spend a lot of their time on the Net.
GM is hoping to rollout Shop-Click-Drive nationwide by the end of the year.
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