Auto dealerships are experiencing data gaps between the core systems that run their dealerships, according to automotive FinTech company eLEND Solutions.
The vast majority of dealerships who responded to the survey noted upgrading their systems—customer relationship management, dealer management and finance management systems— with better quality integrations and workflows between website tools and core platforms could improve efficiencies by at least 20 percent.
In fact, 95 percent said that better quality integrations and workflows between their website tools and core platforms would improve efficiencies and buying experiences at their dealerships.
“Significant Data Lapses”
“We were astonished that so many dealerships are suffering from significant data lapses between the three major information systems – lead generation, customer management and finance – that their dealerships run on,” said Pete MacInnis, founder and CEO, eLEND Solutions in a statement released with the survey. “After all, dealers cannot sell a car without each of the components these systems provide.”
The survey, which was fielded online by eLEND Solutions (formerly DealerCentric) among U.S. auto dealers in November–December 2024, found that dealerships ranked data accessibility as the biggest challenge to improving the quality of API integrations between their website tools and core platforms, closely followed by data discrepancies and broken and missing workflows.
While the survey revealed dealerships are experiencing integration challenges that impact sales processes, the majority agreed that there is a direct correlation between sales processes and profits, underscoring the need for better integrations.
Survey Findings
The survey reported 67 percent of auto dealer respondents say the quality of API integrations between their website tools and core platforms could be improved. Of those, the number one challenge to integration improvement cited was data accessibility (delayed data synching, access restrictions across teams, etc.), with data discrepancies (incomplete data transfer, data formatting differences, duplicate records, etc.) and broken/missing integrations and workflows tied for second.
Other Key Survey Findings included:
- 56 percent of auto dealers surveyed encounter information gaps or discrepancies between their CRM, DMS and FMS over one quarter of the time, with 47 percent encountering gaps 25 to 50 percent of the time, and 9 percent experiencing it over 50 percent of the time.
- Of that 56 percent, 83 percent said that better integrations would improve efficiencies and the buying experience by over 20 percent, with 31 percent saying by 30 percent or more.
- 96 percent agreed that “profits are determined by sales and sales are determined by my sales process,”—including 55 percent strongly agreeing.
“The good news is that dealers are increasingly acknowledging the serious challenges presented by a lack of integration between website tools and their core platforms and the degree to which efficiency, the customer experience and sales process could be improved with better workflows,” said MacInnis.
Credit App Top Priority
Furthermore, the survey revealed that credit apps were the number one tool that dealers felt needed better integration into their dealerships processes at 50 percent, followed by calculator tools, trade-in tools and the overall digital retailing platform.
“Once auto dealers are able to stop viewing online credit apps, and other customer-facing website tools, as simply lead gen opportunities, and start viewing them as an integral part of the sales process, the silos that exist in the sales and finance process will disappear, eliminating the customer friction they cause,” stated MacInnis.
“But to do this, auto dealers need solutions that exist in the middle, connecting in-store and online processes.”
