By Andrew Tai, CEO & Co-Founder, Motoinsight

“Digital retailing is the future of automotive sales.”

You heard it from the software providers, then you started to hear it from everyone else. If you’ve been tuned into the dealership community, the recent buzz about digital retailing adoption is probably working its way into the back of your mind like an irritatingly catchy Top 40 hit you just can’t escape. Granted, we believe digital retailing will have a more positive effect on your life than a pop single (although we’re told Ed Sheeran is on a roll).

Whether you’re eager to cede mental real estate to digital retailing (and by extension, Ed Sheeran) or not, it’s changing the way people shop – and the way they expect to shop. How do we know that? Let’s look at one of the industry leaders in digital retailing: Genesis Motors.

What’s the story with Genesis?

Launched into the Canadian market in 2017, Genesis brought the Hyundai luxury brand’s entire sales process online through digital retailing technology. Customers could purchase their vehicle from any device, then pick it up at the local dealership of their choice with the “Genesis at Home” experience.

As an industry first, Genesis undertook the comprehensive challenge of forging a path forward for the rest of the automotive industry. Now, more than two years later, we’re seeing the results of that. Lead generation in the first month increased by 145 percent year-over-year. Lead volumes between 2018 and 2019 nearly doubled.

Sudden and dramatic increases like this don’t happen by accident. Like a new artist on the scene who achieves overnight success, the immediate surge in digital retailing’s popularity reveals the presence of an existing consumer desire. The market wanted this long before we gave it to them.

Customers wanted to shop online, and Genesis made that possible using digital retailing. Now, that wish has become an expectation. Savvy customers know that what they’ve been waiting for is finally a reality, and they’re bringing the expectations set by Genesis to every car dealership they visit. Digital retailing is the new norm.

Is this a good thing?

This is great for the modern dealership. Digital retailing leads aren’t like the normal kind: leads generated by this kind of technology for Genesis at Home have a conversion rate 2.6x higher than any other for the automaker. Digital retailing is the Genesis’s strongest tool by a long shot, and that power isn’t unique to OEMs.

The same kind of platform that powers Genesis at Home can be implemented at any dealership alongside any website provider to generate similarly impressive results, whether in a big city or a remote town. Car buyers everywhere want to shop online for their next vehicle, and you can let them.

Genesis did the hard work of spearheading this movement and enforcing a new set of consumer shopping habits in the automotive industry; dealerships have the comparatively simple task of following suit. This way of shopping is taking colossal strides forward every year, which we can see by the massive uptick at our dealer and OEM partners. All you have to do is say ‘yes.’