Dealership of the future adds tech, comfort and cuts time, from Automotive News.
There’s value in the traditional brick-and-mortar dealership showroom, industry experts say — but it must evolve.
The physical showroom will have to tie more closely to the dealership’s increasingly important digital presence, incorporating technology and other features to facilitate a faster transaction time and a more customer-friendly environment, they say.
Qvale Auto Group’s four-story, 158,000-square-foot Audi dealership in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is expected to be completed in August. Its business development center will be on the mezzanine, overlooking the showroom, in an effort to create excitement.
“The new consumer, the one who is educated on the Internet, doesn’t want to spend much time in the dealership. They want in and out, whether it’s sales or service,” said Forrest McConnell, outgoing chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association.
For this reason, future dealerships do not “need to be palatial,” McConnell said.
“It must be neat, clean and orderly,” he said. “It serves a function, but it isn’t the grandiose thing we saw 10, 20 or 30 years ago.”
What should a dealership look like in the next five to 10 years? Dealers who are building new stores or renovating existing ones are grappling with that question today. Here are some of their answers.
