Just a few months after kicking off its sales program with dealerships across the U.S., Amazon is already eyeing expansion into the used cars market.
During an interview on the Automotive News Daily Drive podcast, Fan Jin, director and general manager of Amazon Autos, said that the next step in their partnership with Hyundai deals is adding used inventory for dealers.
“It is really our next biggest milestone here…were getting into used cars soon,” said Jin. The goal of the online behemoth is to make sure dealers can sell as much of their inventory as they want through Amazon Autos channel.
Jin Comments
Jin sees Amazon advantage as offering dealers to have omnichannel experience, not just a lead generation site.
“We think that’s valuable because demographic customer data tells us that more and more customers are very much comfortable with a fully online car transaction, even though that’s a very big purchase,” Jin said. “Customers want an omnichannel experience. It takes folks a while to make a decision, so they may start online, they’re going to go to the dealer maybe to look and have a test drive, they’ll come back, think about it and then finish the purchase online. We see that a lot.”
The expansion of offering would include such things like service contracts and maintenance packages, which are huge profit generators for dealers.
Hyundai Partnership
The company began rolling out the Amazon Autos offering in December, partnering with automotive dealers and brands to bring the Amazon experience to the car-buying process. The Seattle-based company launched this digital shopping experience in partnership with Hyundai, enabling shoppers in 48 U.S. cities to buy new Hyundai vehicles from local participating dealers on Amazon.
Amazon Autos currently allows car shoppers to browse, order, finance and schedule pickup of the vehicle from their local participating dealer, all within the familiar Amazon store. They can also get an instant valuation and trade for their existing vehicle.
For dealers, this offering provides a new sales channel and a way to streamline the steps involved in the process, Amazon said.
