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Automotive Resource Center

Welcome to the OSF automotive resource center, aimed to supply you with the necessary resources to build your business case to launch or implement a robust, agile ecommerce solution to meet the needs of current and future demands

Automotive Resource Center
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Accelerate Automotive Ecommerce Solutions to Overcome Pandemic Challenges

The pandemic’s epicenter in Europe and North America underscores the need for automotive companies to remain nimble in their global crisis responses. Supply chain disruptions, combined with the significant economic uncertainty fueled by COVID-19’s global spread, can make planning for the future feel futile.

The automotive industry braced for severe changes before the global pandemic affected factories, dealerships, and auto parts. Now more than ever, many automotive retailers find their current technology lacks the necessary flexibility to adapt to “the new normal.”

The automotive industry should consider top ecommerce platforms to keep pace with the growing online market demand. Why? McKinsey and Company estimate the top 20 OEMs in the global auto sector will see profits decline by approximately $100 billion because of COVID-19, a roughly six-percentage point decrease from just two years ago.

To address safety concerns and build customer confidence, the BMW Group quickly shifted gears accelerating a digital transformation to streamline processes and increase collaboration from anywhere to stabilize and future-proof their business. With fewer people visiting dealerships, everyone at BMW agreed further to accelerate online sales capabilities and dealers' processes.

They used video conferences to connect customers with experts who could answer questions in real-time, then added contactless delivery and test-drive options. The ability to remain agile and pivot to meet customer needs was paramount, and their innovation to overcome adversity has positioned themselves for the future.

Today’s bottom line: The automotive industry has a precarious future: one path leads to reinvention and success through the pandemic, while the other manages the current status quo. This dilemma leaves business leaders a brief window of opportunity to reimagine operations. To ensure survival and success, automotive industry players need to accelerate automotive ecommerce solutions.

Is the answer to lagging automotive sales as easy as launching an online commerce platform?

Are You Facing Similar Challenges?
  • Do your customers demand ease of self-service buying?
  • Can your customers request an online quote and book a visit or test drive?
  • Are you missing out on potential new revenue because your inventory is too complicated?
  • Do you need a way to view each car on its own product details page?
  • Are you looking for ways you could improve relationships with car dealers to manage opportunities?
  • Does your data lack integration and insight?
  • Do you need to manage and trigger emails for abandoned quote requests or car configurations?
How Does an Automotive Digital Transformation Work? Take a Peek…

Take a look at Fanalca, a metal-mechanical company, supplying stamped metal parts for Grupo Andino’s vehicles’ main assemblers. Fanalca is licensed to assemble and commercialize Honda motorcycles and market Honda cars.

The global pandemic created stress for Fanalca to sell Honda motorcycles through physical stores. The company’s existing online presence was limited to a catalog-like marketing website with a phone-based purchase model. Seeking to gain the ability to sell motorcycles directly to consumers online and provide an upgraded customer experience to their digital savvy clientele, Fanalca reached out to trusted digital transformation experts, OSF Digital. Learn how OSF Digital launched a direct-to-consumer ecommerce website in just two weeks, playing an integral role in Fanalca’s digital transformation journey.

Case Study

FAST-TRACKING THE PATH TO PURCHASE FOR MOTORCYCLE
CUSTOMERS USING QUICK START DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER

SOLUTION

OBJECTIVES
  • Sought the ability to sell direct to consumers through their online channel, adopting a new sales model for the automotive industry
  • Wanted to open a new revenue and distribution channel
  • Aspired to go to market with their online shop in weeks, not months
  • Desired to offer an enhanced customer experience for shopping and payment
  • Needed marketing content management capabilities to offer special promotions
SOLUTION

OSF Digital installed its Quick Start Direct to Consumer solution in just 2 weeks to help Fanalca rapidly set up a digital selling channel and launch an online shop fast. This out-of-the-box commerce solution, powered by Salesforce Commerce Cloud, allowed Fanalca to restore business continuity by transitioning to a direct-to-consumer ecommerce platform and open a new revenue and distribution channel.

motorbike
motorbike
RESULTS

OSF Digital, an automotive industry digital transformation partner, launched Fanalca’s first online shop in a matter of weeks, not months, and transformed their selling model. The company gained the ability to sell and move products fast. In 5 weeks, Fanalca registered 300 new users and sold 11 motorbikes using 11 promotions.

Discover what tech stack could make you successful and more insights from Fanalca

Testimonial

testimonial
testimonial

In times of global crisis and social distancing protocols, we were looking for a way to reach consumers and continue to sell products, even with our showrooms closed. In order to offer our customers an option to purchase motorcycles digitally, we needed to ramp up our ecommerce presence quickly. Thanks to OSF’s quick implementation, Fanalca was able to realize many benefits of the Quick Start Direct to Consumer solution, most importantly, gaining the ability to sell and move products for the first time since the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

LUZ ANGELA PALOMINO - Ecommerce Manager, Fanalca

Current Hot Topics for Automotive Industry

Electric mobility, driverless cars, automated factories, and ridesharing are among the significant disruptions the auto industry grappled with before the COVID-19 crisis. Now, the automotive industry has to manage less travel, worldwide factory closures, slumping car sales, and colossal layoffs.

McKinsey and Company report that although disruptions will result in billions lost, companies reimagining their operations will perform best in the next iteration of normal. Currently, consumers are using online sales channels to engage with a plethora of businesses. A recent McKinsey digital sentiment analysis of Europe found the use of digital channels increasing by an average of 13 percentage points. What should the automotive industry do?

Focus on Digital Channels:

Growth in online channels is high for every country surveyed. Still, the most significant boost has occurred in Germany, which has seen digital channels increase almost 30 percentage points in response to the COVID-19 crisis. A faster time to market equals a lower cost for launching your online car marketplace. You’ll create customized user journeys for your customers and partners that can be featured on the marketplace and your partners’ internal teams.

Learn how to go to market
fast at a lower cost
Attract Online Buying Power Quickly:

Allow customers to register and log into your ecommerce marketplace to view each car on its product details page where they can customize vehicles, request a quote, book a visit, a test drive or even preorder a car. When you offer a more effortless shopping experience, customers will be more engaged, spawning new customer acquisition through meaningful customer journeys.

Understand how to offer
easier shopping experiences
Bring Customers and Car Dealers Together:

Create an online portal for your car dealers to view and manage opportunities, view potential buyers’ details, and review reports. You can also empower your car marketplace admins to temporarily or permanently create and view car dealer profiles and disable profiles and listings. Bringing customers and dealers together online has never been easier.

Help your car dealers
reach more customers
Empower Internal Teams with a Cloud-Based Marketplace:

Can your internal teams manage a car dealer’s catalog? Create and manage a car dealer’s profile or configure a Guided Vehicle Search? When you empower teams to view and manage a portal for car dealers, you extend the cloud-based marketplace’s capabilities.

Discover the capabilities of
an Automotive Accelerator
Reimagine Your Automotive
Ecommerce Delivery and Learn
How to Compete Successfully in
the Digital Economy
  • Create customized user journeys for customers and partners featured on the marketplace and partner’s internal teams
  • Discover how predictive commerce data can make your automotive operations smarter, breaking down silos between all departments
  • Learn how to reach more customers by offering self-service journeys similar to a retail ecommerce store
  • Understand how to save time and money with commerce solutions and simplify the buying process for your partners and customers
Develop your automotive marketplace fast and at a lower cost
How Automotive Ecommerce Solutions Can Help You Get to Market Faster, Generate More Revenue and Reduce Costs
Learn how to increase online marketplace capabilities and digitally manage car sales
  • Get to Market Faster, Increase Profits While Cutting Costs

    Automotive leaders can capture more ecommerce opportunities by deploying in weeks—not months or years. Streamlined online buying includes fast reorders, account hierarchies, contract pricing, and custom catalogs.
  • Optimize Daily Functions with a 360-Degree Customer View using Scalable System

    Automotive dealers can stock the shelves of their retail stores, enable online ordering of inventory, or meet the needs of distribution or wholesale partners. Dealers can also leverage customer data across multi-channels like sales, marketing, and service, allowing them to engage with buyers in any digital or in-person touchpoint.
  • Empower Customers with Self-Service Buying

    Automotive leaders can empower their business customers with easy, consumer-like shopping experiences they enjoy in their personal life—anytime on any device – along with purchasing recommendations that are tailored in real-time.
  • Enable Distributors or Dealerships to Create Branding Sites/Portals

    Automotive leaders can help partners grow by creating branded sites and intuitive digital portals that can launch quickly. Auto companies can build customer loyalty faster and ensure repeat business with guided buying experiences.
Revisit The Way Your Customers Interact With Your Online Auto Ecommerce Store and Enhance Their Digital Buying Experience

The global crisis pushed digitization into fast-forward. This is especially true of the auto buying process well beyond earlier trends.

Auto dealers can accelerate revenue growth and provide a unique customer experience by adopting a digital first approach to sales.

  • Automotive consumers visited an average of 4.2 websites during their purchasing process stressing the importance of a digital first approach to sales.
  • Only 5.5% of all dealerships had a 360-degree viewer feature, which consumers want most
  • 79% of dealerships do NOT ’offer the ability to search vehicles ‘close to me’
  • Barely 7% of all dealerships allowed consumers to pre-order a customized vehicle
Automotive Dealership Ecommerce Benchmark Study DOWNLOAD NOW

Case Study

KAL TIRE LAUNCHES PREMIER ONLINE DESTINATION FOR

TIRES TO INCREASE LOYALTY AND SALES

Kal Tire

OSF Digital specializes in designing ecommerce solutions that unify customer data and create strategic opportunities for the automotive industry to craft better customer experiences through increased personalization. Known as the trusted digital transformation experts, OSF Digital’s transformation successes among the retail sector are award-winning.

CHALLENGE

Kal Tire, Canada’s largest independent tire dealer as well as North America’s second-largest commercial tire dealer, wanted to offer an enhanced level of service with product selection, visualization, and personalization, as well as the ability to book tire installation appointments. Kal Tire also wanted to provide the right support at the right time at each stage of the customer’s decision-making process.

kal-tire-tires-1
kal-tire-tires-2
SOLUTION

Kal Tire’s website was first replatformed over to Salesforce Commerce Cloud. OSF Digital then integrated their Retail.net POS system with Salesforce Commerce Cloud—making the first storefront integration on these two technologies.

RESULTS

Kal Tire is equipped to leverage both sales and customer service functionalities on each platform. The customer’s journey is fully supported at every step of the way. Their website features a sophisticated appointment booking tool backed by a geolocation feature to help consumers discover the closest store to obtain service. OSF Digital also integrated a product visualizer to allow customers to view how wheel options appear on their vehicle.

Testimonial

testimonial
testimonial

Customers are increasingly researching products and services online—and the selection of tires is no different. Tire buying is known for being complex to navigate and delivering a confusing experience for customers. By providing exceptionally detailed information on tires and accessories via a detailed and highly-specified product selection tool, Kal Tire aims to be Canada’s premier online destination for tire information.

GREG WARING - VP of Marketing, Kal Tire

learn more about kal tire’s digital transformation to put customers first /> </a> src=
learn more about kal tire’s digital transformation to put customers first
OSF DIGITAL white logo
OSF Digital has been named Salesforce Navigator Expert in B2C Commerce, Consumer Goods and Retail by Salesforce, the highest-level honors for expertise. OSF Digital has also received the 2020 Salesforce Partner Award for the most relevant Salesforce Commerce Cloud project. These awards join OSF’s vast portfolio of distinctions, including the 2019 Bolty Award for Best Digital Experience in the Retail and Consumer Goods category, the 2019 Partner Innovation Award in the category of Customer 360, the 2018 Salesforce Lightning Bolt Trailblazer Award for Retail and Salesforce’s 2016 Partner Innovation Award in Retail. OSF Digital provides technology, consulting, implementation and online shop management services to emerging and premier brands, and merchants focused on building Multi-Cloud and Unified Commerce projects using Salesforce Clouds and other top-tier cloud technologies such as Sitecore and Adobe.
Learn More about OSF Digital’s Solutions
OSF Digital is an award-winning, certified solution, and Salesforce partner for leading enterprise, ecommerce, CRM, OMS, and CMS technologies. Our proven automotive industry experience and expertise with all Salesforce Clouds allow us to quickly implement your Salesforce Commerce solution. We carefully adapt a solution to meet your needs and provide you with any support you require to accommodate future growth.

Learn how to open new market opportunities with your online store
Unlock your ecommerce potential with unparalleled support and maintenance services

Solutions to Rev Up
Your Ecommerce Platform

OSF Digital, the trusted digital transformation experts, provides the automotive industry multiple solutions to empower customer success. Learn more about the solutions that fuel some of the best automotive sites in the industry.

Developed by OSF Digital, this industry accelerator is built by leveraging Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Experience Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Salesforce Sales Cloud. Use Automotive Accelerator to launch an online car marketplace faster and at a lower price, benefiting from all the Salesforce Clouds’ enhanced features, such as guided selling journeys and booking test drives and visits with the dealer, amongst others.

Discover how you can empower internal teams
and offer more opportunities to customers

Did you know you can open a new distribution channel and start selling direct to consumers in just 2 weeks? Like Fanalca, you can quickly adapt to changing customer needs by opening a new revenue and distribution channel. This transition is easier to make when you partner with a team of digital transformation experts.

Understand how you can adapt to consumer needs
and move offline to online in just 2 weeks

Are you selling pre-owned leased vehicles or rental cars and want to sell direct to consumers quickly? Quick Start Automotive fills the gap between consumer needs and the traditional automotive sales model, simplifying the product discovery journey and offering self-service features to reserve a car, schedule a test drive or make a dealership visit.

Deliver a modern-day sales experience allowing customers
to shop and purchase when and how they want

Recommended Products
for the Automotive Industry

Check out these drop-in cartridges that are Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA) compatible with Salesforce Commerce Cloud providing the automotive industry different ways to attract, satisfy, and retain customers.

Guided Product Finder
VideoLib
Store Locator
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