OmniChannel’s Power
OMNI.AUTO: Generating an Auto Sales Tidal Wave
Ride that wave now with our innovative auto sales solutions team at omni.auto.
We’ve all heard of multichannel retail techniques, which enable customers to shop and purchase online, through social media, or via the good, old traditional marketplace – the dealership showroom. The trouble with that approach is each channel tends to operate in a silo. Today’s dealerships can be dealing with as many as 18 separate service providers, from digital marketing and CRM to lead generation and software providers.
But omni.auto brings everything under one roof, integrating all those channels to enable them to work seamlessly together in what is termed OmniChannel retailing. It offers a high-quality customer experience, by uniting all sales and marketing into one cooperative wave. This results in exponential growth and reaches while cutting expenses. Our US stores have witnessed double-digit growth within 90 days and continue to increase their volume and profits. Our omni-channel systems also provide your ROI on spend, which other suppliers do not.
Don’t take our word for it!
Carmax, the largest used car retailer in the U.S. and a Fortune 500 company, has made OmniChannel retailing a major thrust of its retail strategy.
CEO Bill Nash told investors recently that since debuting the strategy, CarMax has seen two
straight quarters of double-digit percentage gains in same-store sales in that market, outpacing company averages.
In October 2019, Tom Laymac, the global director of digital at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles published a report explaining how auto brands and dealers need to adopt an integrated and tierless marketing approach. In the brief, he explains how tierless marketing led to a more seamless customer experience and increased sales.
Laymac also makes the case for consolidated data and a frictionless consumer experience, which can only adequately be delivered with a tierless approach and an OmniChannel marketing strategy.”
And Toyota is trialing OmniChannel retailing at seven stores in the U.S., using in-house SmartPath software.
Interestingly, Bill Fay, a Toyota (North America) senior vice president, cautioned Automotive News: There are lots of challenges in aligning CRMs, DMSs, and the overall dealer websites into what we’re doing, so it becomes a complicated technological exercise to be able to work out all those bugs, have it work the way the customer would expect it to work and then scale it out across our dealers.
We at omni.auto are ahead of the game with the answers to those complexities and we can prove it. Let us help you take back and grow your business, by competing with multiple third-party agencies and services providers.
Don’t take our word for it, scan these independent observations on the value of what we at omni.auto can bring to your business.
OmniChannel Retailing Makes Noise Beyond Buzz
CarMax has made omnichannel retailing which refers to offering a seamless buying experience to consumers whether they shop online, in-store or both a large piece of its retail strategy this year. CEO Bill Nash told investors recently that since debuting its OmniChannel offering in Atlanta in December of 2018, CarMax has seen two straight quarters of double-digit percentage gains in same-store sales in that market, and those same-store sales have outpaced company averages.

How Tierless Marketing Can Increase Digital Sales
Tom Laymac, global director of digital at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, is a staunch believer that auto brands and dealers absolutely must move toward a tierless marketing approach. In this document, Laymac discusses the pitfalls of a silo mentality in today’s industry and the drawbacks associated with having brand, regional, and dealer segments acting as autonomous entities. Instead, Laymac makes the case for consolidated data and a frictionless consumer experience, which can only adequately be delivered with a tierless approach and an OmniChannel marketing strategy.
“Targeting high-intent consumers yields a more efficient paid search spend. We’ve been able to more than double our digital-lead retail sales at the same marketing cost. This strategy has also enabled us to strengthen the bridge between tiers and make more informed marketing decisions.”

We Want It All: Consumers Demand OmniChannel Experience
Consumers don’t just want some channels, they want them all. Critical Channels of Choice, a study by The CMO Council, polled consumers, finding that 59% say it’s important for companies to be OmniChannel, with 28% feeling it’s critical and only 13% not caring. In addition, 85% want a blend of physical and digital.

The OmniChannel Halo: How Stores Drive eCommerce
The International Council of Shopping Centers just released its latest findings on ways OmniChannel options power retail sales and the $$$ amounts should make every merchant stand up and pay attention.
The Council analyzed data from some $31 billion in consumer spending and learned that a $100 online transaction that was followed by an in-store purchase at the same retailer averaged a net spend of $231.

CarMax Innovates with OmniChannel Strategy
Learn how CarMax, the largest used car retailer in the U.S., has worked to re-invent the used car market to be an OmniChannel environment that’s innovative, easy to use, and transparent.
“We believe that no other company is in a better position to deliver this OmniChannel experience efficiently and profitably,” said Bill Nash, president, and chief executive officer of CarMax. “This is truly an unmatched experience that we are confident in the future of car buying.

OmniChannel Retailing The Way of the Future
Harmonized retail, which is the integration between physical stores and technology, will be necessary for the future, says Rick Chichester, president, and CEO of Faris Lee Investments. “We are already seeing the trends in today’s market. E-commerce firms are moving rapidly into brick-and-mortar such as Amazon launching the Amazon Go concept and opening the initial store in Seattle as well as Walmart also increasing its omnichannel presence. The integration of physical stores and technology is critical for success and future growth.

More Than Half of Shoppers Will Abandon a Brand Following a Bad Experience
According to April 2019 data from business intelligence company Incite Group, customer service professionals from various industries worldwide said that a seamless OmniChannel user experience (34.0%) and the encouragement of self-service tools (29.7%) will be two of the most transformative customer service innovations over the next five to 10 years.

The Halo Effect II: Quantifying the Impact of OmniChannel
In 2018, ICSC published a landmark study exploring the influence of physical stores on retailers’ web traffic. The findings demonstrated how brick-and-mortar stores form the foundation of a halo effect namely, that the presence of physical stores boosts the share of those retailer’s web traffic in the markets where the stores are present; that closing stores cause a corresponding drop in online clicks; and, that the presence of physical stores has a demonstrable effect across several metrics of brand health.

Retail Technology: Do Dealerships Have Too Many Tools in the Toolshed?
Dealers use a ton of vendors. CDK has released a study that indicates dealers utilize 14 service providers on average, ranging from digital marketing to CRM systems. That said, 78 percent remark that they wish they had someone to lean on to inform them as to how best to understand their metrics and maximize performance.
The takeaway: At dealerships, there may be too many tools in the tool shed.

Digital Retailing is Still a Complex Problem for Dealers
Equifax Automotive vice president of strategy and marketing, Jennifer Reid, speaks to Auto Marketing on the challenges dealers face when moving into the digital retailing space, and how a complete solution is a holy grail for approximately 75% of dealers that don’t wish to deal with platform fragmentation.
So the true solution is going to be looking at a partnership across the technology platforms, the data providers and services providers, to be able to connect those things together, Reid said.
Toyota Takes Omnichannel Retail In-House
In an effort to streamline the companies and tools they work with, Toyota is taking a proactive approach by adopting an omnichannel retail strategy that enables customers to shop, finance, and schedule service from anywhere that boasts an internet connection. It provides a seamless buying experience regardless of whether the customer is operating from a computer, a phone/tablet, or in a dealership.

Direct Mail Effectiveness Growing
While digital marketing gets plenty of press these days and rightfully so strong direct mail strategy is crucial to your dealership. In fact, direct mail effectiveness continues to reach new heights. The ANA/DMA Response Rate Report 2018 reflects two points: the direct mail response rate is the highest it’s ever been (since they first started tracking in 2003), and the direct mail response rate for house lists, specifically, is at nearly 10% and now also the highest it’s been since the report began. Fascinating insights inside this PDF
