This year is likely to see a dramatic increase in the adoption of online motor finance by independent dealers.
Currently, it is believed that only around 30% of independents have this type of facility in place compared to figure of 65% for the top 200 dealer groups. However, iVendi CEO James Tew says this is about to change.
He explained: “Increasingly, used car, bike and van buyers expect even quite localised used retailers to have a highly professional web presence. They assume there will be a high level of web functionality and your web site is actually now used to judge the professionalism of your business.
“Certainly, for all but the smallest dealers, we believe that a finance calculator is a minimum requirement and that, soon, customers will also expect to see a choice of finance products and an option to make online applications.
“Independents are coming around to this point of view and will be one of the major markets that we will be targeting in 2017.”
James added that, despite the facts that most independents lagged behind franchise dealers when it came to online motor finance, some with which iVendi worked were already making impressive use of the technology.
“Many of these dealers spend a lot of time getting their web site right and are interested in any tool that drives traffic and sales.
“Certainly, we have strong relationships with some first tier independents and their approach to online motor finance can even exceed that of large dealer groups. They look at what we provide very much on a cost-benefit basis and see strong results.”