IVendi has published a new white paper that is designed to help dealers complete a “digital transformation” that will make their businesses fit for the post-pandemic used car, van and motorcycle markets.

The document, Connected Retailing: Addressing the Challenges of Digital Transformation, is available to download for free from iVendi’s website and covers a wide range of emerging trends and their potential technological solutions.

James Tew, CEO at iVendi, said: “With the end of the pandemic now hopefully in sight, we’ve been spending considerable time examining how it has changed our understanding of the ways in which technology can best be used by dealers.

“Some of these are quite obvious and should be apparent to all dealers but others are relatively subtle. However, taken as a whole, we believe there has been something approaching a fundamental shift.”

Four key points are covered in detail in the white paper.

Firstly, dealers must ensure their systems can handle any kind of buyer – whether they are digital only, traditional showroom purchasers or a hybrid buyer who uses a combination of both channels. A dealership needs a digital infrastructure that can transition between each type and offer the same level of service to all.

Secondly, retailers must consider their physical and digital showrooms are one big sales floor. With the majority of vehicle buyers falling into the ‘hybrid’ category, iVendi says there can be no artificial separation of the two. Systems must be flexible enough to accommodate everything from finance quotes and applications to part exchanges and outstanding finance – whether the buyer is online or in the showroom.

To ensure profitability is maintained across the whole deal, the third point outlines the importance of maintaining income in areas such as warranties and other value-added products. These have historically been difficult to integrate successfully into digital processes, but iVendi believes considerable progress has been made in the last year.

The final point is centred around iVendi’s technology specifically. It believes that its Digital Deal product, introduced last year, provides dealers with the means to offer the best aspects of showroom and online sales journeys in a wholly digital format. It allows a complete proposition to be built for a specific customer in less than a minute and has helped iVendi clients achieve  £92m of sales.

The iVendi white paper can be accessed here: https://ivendi.com/whitepaper.