MEDIA: Online Car Retail - Oneswoop - Automotive Management June 2001

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• News - News ArticleAnd now the talk is of getting together

Last spring Sir Richard Branson launched Virgin Cars and said: fje want to be thebiggest car dealership in the country .• p> Rumours of the early demise of Virgin Carsare probably wishful thinking among dealers but they have no intention of allowing SirRichard or any other dotcom newcomer to take over the market.

Perhaps the lesson of aftersales . a sector dealers allowed specialists to share • hasbeen learned. That was certainly the message at Automotive Management's DigitalDealer Fair where there was tough-talking from the franchised sector.

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See AlsoDuring two days of seminars, dealers and dotcom executives gave their views of motor • Harvey Nics touch at Cityretailing in the next few years. A year ago, the electronic retailers were dismissive of the Store (March 29 2001)~inosaurs • who ran old-fashioned dealerships, Now the talk is of integration.

Several leading dealer groups have invested in their own websites where customers cangather information before visiting a dealership. Or, in some cases, buy online.

Now Virgin Cars and One Swoop are hunting for retail partners because they haveworked out what retail buyers want.

• Market pressures take toll onRyland Group (March 29 2001)

• Dixon announces "creditable"results (March 29 2001)

• CD Brarnall looking to buymore specialist outlets (March 292001)

Even so, OneSwoop marketing manager Dowshan Humzah, speaking at the conference, • GPG fails to prevent Perry dealwas talking up the growth of online sales. He forecast the 19,000 last year would become (March 282001)53,000 in 2001,281,000 in 2003 and 603,000 in 2005. He thought the final forecast was

• Virgin on target to be in profitEI3 onservative • by autumn (March 28 200 I)

• Toyota blames pre-registrationtotal on RAV4 demand (March 27

Keith Hartrick, CD Bramall group managing director, put the case at the conference for 2001)the way traditional car retailers can take advantage of the internet.

Lindsay Levin, Whites Group chief executive, must have voiced the view of manydealers when she told delegates: fjhile pure internet car retailers have a shaky future, itdoes not mean the internet is not an important piece of the future retailing mix .• p> MrsLevin urged manufacturers not to be propelled ~y dotcom hype . into radical moves toreshape the sales channel.

~~s a retail dealer group we can offer the online buyer everything they want, • he said.fje can offer a seamless process, whether the customer buys via the internet or throughthe showroom .• p> Mr Hartrick said CD Bramall had generated between 80-100additional sales a month by linking all the group's used car stock so customers at anyoutlet could see everything available.

This approach gives large groups a further advantage over individual dealerships orsmall groups whose stocks are limited.

Mr Hartrick spotlighted how internet-enthusiasts were being put in their place atdealerships, Often, an outlet's 'internet champion' was an administrator rather than amember of the sales staff.

The main task was to take photographs, correctly describe the cars and display theinformation in the right place on the group's website.

This does not require advanced IT skills. But it does mean that retail customers, who aregaining enthusiasm for car browsing on websites, will be a step closer to visiting a CDBramall dealership. (Tony WiIIard. March 29 2001)

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• Vauxhall plans to triple on-linenew car sales in 2000 (March 272001)

• Beadles buys HMGVolkswagen site (March 27 2001)

• MB-UK's actions lead to "lesscompetition and pricerises" (March 23 2001)

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