Automotive Website Technology Forecast for 2025

The team at Dealer eProcess has been delivering automotive website and retail tools for over 16 years. I am passionate regarding our powerful new Everest Platform, however there are some dealers who still believe that all automotive website platforms are about the same in their features and performance. I can feel their skepticism when we present our platform and our vision for the future of automotive retailing.

This perception may be fueled because dealers have replaced native website tools with iFrame retailing widgets that make tracking consumer engagement difficult. Dealer websites have become a patchwork quilt of pop-ups and conflicting CTAs.

Brian Pasch recently covered the challenge of conflicting IFRAMES on LinkedIn. This is a real point of contention which our customer support team faces when we conduct monthly performance reviews. Dealers are getting frustrated with these popular retail tools which are not working in harmony with each other.

Increasing conversion and reducing friction in the shopping process is just one reason why Everest was built.

Everest is also hitting new sales records because we are saving dealers thousands of dollars a month! Our integrated trade, credit, and digital retailing tools support a single Digital ID and work better to record every action a consumer takes online in Google Analytics. Fewer cooks in the website "kitchen" reduces monthly software subscription costs and increases sales opportunities when integrated tools are in place.

Change is Coming

The good news is that progressive dealers who are investing in first-party data management (i.e., CDPs) and who are interested in connecting their tech stack to their online showroom experience are moving to Everest. I believe, however, we are just at the beginning of a massive technology shift.

2025 will be the year when dealers rethink their online showroom technology stack.

As I look at automotive retail trends and the rise of AI, dealers who have more high-quality data will have a competitive edge in retail operations. The high-quality data that will drive innovation in online retail operations includes:

• A more complete view of the consumer shopping journey using identity resolution technology (i.e., our Digital ID), which includes the dealers receiving real-time alerts when existing customers are back in market and shopping on their DEP website.
• Deeper insights when existing customers are online and do not complete a lead form, a trade process, a credit pre-qualification, or an online service scheduler. This knowledge empowers an immediate customer service call to be made with the relevant context.
• Connecting market demand data and vehicle days on lot (i.e., DEP Units) with the consumer's online activities to dynamically change pricing/offers and deliver a truly personalized experience. This will be even more powerful when the dealer is informed the shopper is an existing customer. Wouldn't you want to offer them a customer loyalty bonus in advance?
• Inputs from a dealer's CDP can fuel advanced personalization on Everest without having a consumer log into the platform. CDP utilization will grow in 2025. Everest is ready to connect to these data platforms to deliver a differentiated online experience.

While personalization has been talked about for years, Everest will fuel advanced personalization online because we have already demonstrated that we can connect with multiple identity resolution platforms and Customer Data Platforms!

AI Will Power Real Experiences and Lead Follow-Up

The combination of identity resolution, first-party data management platforms, and our advanced Everest platform will allow dealers to differentiate their sales process online and in the showroom. AI tools will fill gaps in lead follow-up and online engagement (i.e., low conversion rates) which are present today.

All dealers know that a low percentage of online shoppers will fill out a form. This is because the consumer has no incentive to do so and the online offers are generic, lacking context.

AI engagement tools will change online conversion rates. Chat, online offers, and CTAs will be able to be dynamically generated to provide higher value and relevant context.

The team at Dealer eProcess welcomes dealer groups who are investing in Customer Data Platforms (CDP) to contact our sales team. Let's discuss how your first-party data and shared identity resolution technology can power better online experiences.

The good news is that we can power personalized online experiences without a CDP, but we know that a robust enterprise CDP can take Everest customers even higher in sales performance.

2025 Forecast: Start Managing Your Data

Higher quality data, more complete data from third parties and identity resolution tools, and real-time tracking of online shoppers will provide AI tools with the data they need to learn more about your business and online sales process. The gaps in customer service and sales processes will start being filled with better AI technologies.

Automotive retail shopper data needs a home. The dealer's CRM and DMS were never designed to handle this type of consumer engagement data. While our company is not in the business of building a CDP or a data lake, we are focused on being the best online consumer experience for Tier 3 automotive retail, powered by the dealer's first-party data warehouse.

If your dealership is ready to leverage your first-party data to create a better online shopping experience, let's whiteboard that experience together.