CrossCheck Blog

“Dealers need to provide customers with a consistent, relevant, seamless experience throughout each stage of purchasing, including the dealership website.” – David Boice Recently, I attended a webinar given by David Boice, CEO and founder of a company called Advid. It was titled, “Lessons from Amazon Prime: evolving the consumer experience in the digital era.” I thought Mr. Boice had some important things to say about what consumers think and feel when they start their search for a new car, and I wanted to share this with our readers. To understand his message, we have to start at the beginning of the consumer buying experience.

If your business sells building materials to the construction industry, then you already know that it takes a long time to get paid. It doesn’t matter what you sell — lumber, dry wall, plumbing supplies, roofing materials, flooring — the contractors who buy from you have cash-flow issues that they deal with every day. The 2019 National Construction Payments Report, a survey conducted in collaboration between Levelset and TSheets by Quickbooks, concluded that getting paid in the construction industry is slower than just about every other industry. How slow? The average time to payment is 83 days!

Recently, some of our merchant dealers have been asking us about artificial intelligence – what is it, how does it work, and most importantly, can artificial intelligence help auto dealerships increase revenue? To answer those questions, let’s start with some background. In 1950, Alan Turing wrote a paper titled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” His idea was: “Humans use available information as well as reason to solve problems and make decisions, so why can’t machines do the same thing?” The problem back then was that computers could not store enough information, or process it fast enough, to add value to the procedure. We needed more processing power, new software, and ultimately putting the GPU in the cloud. This took a few more decades, plus the power of Moore’s Law, to be viable.

The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) is the trade group for new auto dealerships in the U.S. NADA provides many valuable services for their members, including training programs, weeklong seminars, an academy, and setting up “Twenty Groups,” where a dealer will meet regularly with 19 other dealers in their area to get advice and guidance from their peers on current developments in their store. Another valuable service is developing research reports on the retail automotive industry.

Recently, Experian released their Q3 2019 “State of the Automotive Finance Market” report. The authors made a couple of important points — mostly about changes in the used car market — that automotive retailers should take note of. The good news is that used vehicles are generating a larger share of the U.S. automotive finance market. Used car financing increased 2.4% in 2019. It reached 55.15% of total financing. Why did this happen, and why is it good news for a dealer?

Two of the most frequent questions asked by consumers at auto dealerships are: “Can you help me get a loan to buy this car?” and “How much of a down payment will I need to make?” As a dealer, you had better have the answers accurately and quickly, or you might lose the sale. It turns out that these are not always easy questions to answer because, well, they are complicated. In this short article, we are going to address both questions and take a further exploration of the customer credit journey at your store. More importantly, we are going to answer the question: “How can auto dealerships help consumers with down payments?” You will learn how to provide a good customer experience, get the taillights over the curb, and inspire good reviews on social media.

What better destination for furniture professionals than one of the largest home furnishings shows in the nation? International Market Centers, L.P. welcomes home furnishings dealers, home décor retailers, interior designers, architects, and other industry experts to attend the Winter Las Vegas Market (LVM) 2020. This market fills more than 5.4 million square feet with thousands of home furnishings/home décor exhibits, products and services suited for all professionals in the industry. This year’s market takes place Jan. 26 – 30 at the World Market Center in downtown Las Vegas.

Recently, I saw a survey taken by CrediCards.com showing that large retailers offering new store credit cards have increased the interest rates on those cards substantially in the last few months. The article noted that this is particularly ironic as the Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates during this same period. This article demonstrates how merchants using CrossCheck services help consumers avoid debt traps. This is what the survey found: The average APR on store-only credit cards has increased to 27.52%. The average APR for new co-branded store cards (that can be used at other stores) has risen to 23.39%. The average APR for all retail store cards is 26.01%. Like other things in life, these store cards have a good side and a bad side. First, the good.

No matter what kind of car you drive, at some point you are going to need to buy auto parts. A modern car can have a few thousand parts, of which about a third are moving and will wear out over time. Most of the time, these parts would be considered normal wear and tear, but sometimes not. You will need to buy auto parts at either a franchise dealership or an auto aftermarket store. Let’s start by taking a look at what you will have to replace if you keep your car for a few years or longer.

It’s Saturday morning on Memorial Day weekend. The inflatable tube man is in perpetual motion, burgers are sizzling on the outdoor grill, and the television ads have been running for days. Your auto dealership is ready for its big, big marathon holiday sales event. You close out the preparations with a sales meeting. It’s “all hands on deck.” There are boxes of gooey donuts, pots of hot coffee, and a cadre of sharp-dressed sales people with their chins up. Your general manager delivers a pep-talk that would make the legendary Knute Rockne take notice.