Industry commentary
Digital Retailing: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly for Dealers
The pros and cons of digital retailing for dealers: what it does well, where it breaks, the ugly risks of OEM platforms and payments, and how to fix each one.
Quick answer
Digital retailing helps dealers when it saves shoppers time, brings in buyers who have shared real credit and trade details, and shows prices openly. It hurts when online estimates change at the desk, tools do not talk to each other, OEM platforms multiply and advertised payments break disclosure rules. Keep one price, one record and one process.
Arnold Tijerina wrote the first version of this column in November 2022, as manufacturers were moving into digital retailing. His worry was blunt: "every OEM is going to have its own platform. This is far from what consumers want. Nobody wants to have a dozen different experiences to sift through."
His other point is the one most vendor pitches skip: "You might be told that the technology is the experience, but it's not."
This update keeps his column's question and answers it for a dealer principal or general manager deciding how much of the deal to move online. It sets out the good, the bad and the ugly in one table, then explains how to keep the good and avoid the rest. If you run a powersports store and want the step-by-step setup instead, read our digital retail setup guide for powersports dealers. Independent used-vehicle dealers have their own guide on how independent dealers can use digital retail platforms.
What digital retailing means for a dealer
Digital retailing means letting a shopper complete parts of the deal online instead of at the desk. Depending on the tools and the store, that can include:
- seeing the price of a specific unit, with fees;
- building a payment estimate;
- getting a trade-in estimate;
- applying for credit or pre-qualifying;
- placing a deposit or booking an appointment;
- and, where the lender and state allow, signing documents electronically.
None of this is new in principle. Tijerina's 2022 column made the point that dealers could always give price, payments and terms upfront; some simply did not. What changed is that shoppers now expect to do these steps themselves, at night, on a phone. Our article on digital desking for powersports dealers covers the deal-structuring tools in detail.
The good, the bad and the ugly at a glance
| What it looks like | Who feels it | The fix | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good: convenience | Shoppers do research and paperwork on their own time | Shopper and salesperson | Make every online step optional, not a gate |
| Good: shoppers who arrive pre-qualified | Credit, trade and budget known before the visit | Desk and F&I | Read what they submitted before they arrive |
| Good: transparency | Price and fees visible before contact | Shopper | Publish the same price everywhere |
| Bad: estimates that change at the desk | Online payment or trade number moves in store | Shopper, then your reviews | Label estimates and show the inputs |
| Bad: disconnected tools | Shopper repeats steps in store | Everyone | One record per shopper, carried into the store |
| Ugly: OEM platform sprawl | A different tool per brand on the lot | Shopper and staff | Pick one home for the deal |
| Ugly: payments that do not match | Advertised payment differs from the real one | Shopper, compliance | Check advertised terms against Regulation Z |
| Ugly: compliance exposure | Online claims the store cannot honor | The dealership | Review with counsel before launch |
The good: what digital retailing does well
Convenience
Many shoppers research before they ever call. Letting them take the next step online, at the moment they are ready, removes a reason to leave your site for a competitor's. The best setups let a shopper stop at any point and pick up again with a person.
Shoppers who arrive pre-qualified
When a shopper has already shared credit information, a trade and a budget, the in-store conversation starts at the right unit and the right structure. Shoppers are often willing to share. Cox Automotive's 2023 Digitization of Car Buying Study found that 74% of car shoppers were comfortable sharing personal data such as income and credit score. The same study found 76% of dealers said digital retailing tools had improved customer relationships and eased completing the deal, and 61% said the tools improved the F&I process.
Those are car dealer and car shopper figures; no comparable powersports study was found. The direction is still useful: shoppers will share real details when they trust what happens next.
Transparency
A visible price, with fees, answers the question shoppers have always asked first. Tijerina's column traced the problem back to the first dealer websites: "Nobody wants to go to your website, submit a lead, and find out that you were just trying to get them in." Transparency only counts if the price is the one the store will honor.
The bad: where digital retailing breaks
Estimates that change at the desk
The most common complaint about digital retailing is a number that moves. The payment was built with a rate the shopper does not qualify for, the trade estimate assumed a condition the unit is not in, or fees were left out. Each change may be legitimate. Unexplained, it reads as a bait and switch.
The fix is in how the estimate is shown. Our guides on showing payment options honestly with a website payment calculator and setting up an online trade-in estimator explain how to label estimates, show the inputs and present trade values as a range subject to inspection.
Disconnected tools
Cox's 2023 study is blunt about this. 97% of the dealers surveyed said customers complete steps online and then repeat them in the store. The steps repeated most often were trade-in offers, deal breakouts, finalizing the purchase price, selecting add-ons and financing applications. Only 8% of dealers completely trust the information shoppers share online, 70% said shoppers repeat steps to verify data is accurate, and only 1 in 4 dealers said their digital tools offer a congruent experience online and in store.
Repeating a step to verify it is normal. Repeating it because the store cannot see what the shopper did online is waste, and the shopper notices.
The ugly: platform sprawl, payments and compliance
OEM platform sprawl
This was Tijerina's main warning. A multi-line dealer may be offered a digital retail tool by each manufacturer, plus one from a lender and one from a website vendor. Each has its own price logic, its own lead format and its own place where the shopper's work is stored. The shopper sees a different experience depending on which brand page they landed on, and the salesperson has to log into several systems to find one deal.
The answer is not to refuse every OEM tool. It is to decide which system is home for the deal and make every other tool feed it. That home is usually your CRM.
Payments that do not match
A monthly payment shown online is an advertisement, and federal rules apply to it. Under Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act, if an ad for closed-end credit states the amount of any payment, the number of payments or period of repayment, the amount or percentage of any down payment, or the amount of any finance charge, it must also state the down payment, the terms of repayment, and the "annual percentage rate," using that term (12 CFR 1026.24(d)).
A slider that shows "$189 a month" with no term, down payment or APR beside it is the kind of thing that creates exposure. So is a payment built on a rate few buyers will get.
Compliance exposure
Online pricing and offers are also covered by the Federal Trade Commission Act, which declares "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce" unlawful (15 U.S.C. 45). An online price the store will not honor, or fees added at the desk that the site never mentioned, can raise that question. State law adds its own rules on advertising, fees and electronic contracts.
This is general information, not legal advice. Have your counsel review your online pricing, payment and credit pages before launch and whenever the tools change. No tool can promise you compliance.
How to keep the good and avoid the rest
Tijerina's column told a story that makes the point better than any study. A shopper bought a pre-owned Jeep from a dealer in another state. The dealer sent photos and videos and offered several lending options; the deal was done online, with a transport fee, and finished in a Wal-Mart parking lot. In his words, "It was easy, and no digital retailing tools were involved."
The lesson is not to skip the tools. It is that the good parts of digital retailing come from process, and the bad and ugly parts come from tools bolted onto a process nobody designed. Here is how to keep the good:
- Publish one price per unit, everywhere. Your site, OEM platforms, marketplaces and the desk show the same price and the same list of fees. If a price changes, it changes everywhere the same day.
- Label every estimate and show its inputs. Payment estimates show price, down payment, term, APR and whether tax and fees are included. Trade estimates show a range and say what can move it.
- Pick one home for the deal. Every online step, from any tool, lands on one customer record in your CRM. Staff never log into three systems to find one deal.
- Verify, do not repeat. When the shopper arrives, the salesperson confirms what was submitted ("You told us the trade has about 3,000 miles; let's look at it together") instead of starting a fresh form.
- Answer fast, with a person. A completed online step is a buying signal. Route it to a named person who replies by the shopper's chosen channel.
- Audit five deals a month. Compare the online estimate with the final deal on five recent sales. Every gap should have a reason a shopper would accept. If it does not, fix the tool or the process behind it.
- Review the advertised terms. Check every page that shows a payment against the Regulation Z rules above, with counsel, before launch and after every change.
A quick scorecard
Score your store yes or no on each line:
- A unit's price is the same on our site, OEM pages and at the desk.
- Every payment shown online lists term, down payment and APR.
- Trade estimates are shown as a range subject to inspection.
- Every online step lands on one customer record.
- Salespeople read that record before the shopper arrives.
- We know how many deals changed from the online number last month, and why.
- Counsel has reviewed our online pricing and credit pages this year.
Four or fewer yeses means the bad and ugly are probably costing you more than the good is earning.
Where PSX Ascend fits
PSX Ascend's certified powersports dealership websites connect actual photos, accurate details and current pricing to each unit, and use focused forms and pre-qualification paths that reduce friction and preserve customer context. The work a shopper does on the site travels into the AI-powered powersports CRM, so the person at the desk can see what the shopper was shown and asked for.
ALMA, our Automated Lead Management Assistant, helps keep the conversation moving by phone, text and email and brings stalled shoppers back to a live conversation with your team. It does not replace the salesperson, and it makes no AI voice calls. That fits the column's view that the experience is about how much time and money you save customers.
You can also see the same certified dealership websites on our sister site, PSXDigital's certified dealership websites page.
Related reading
- Digital retail setup guide for powersports dealers: which steps to put online first and which stay in the store.
- How independent dealers can use digital retail platforms.
- How powersports buyer expectations have changed.
- How buying a motorcycle online from a dealer works, from the buyer's side.
Sources
- Cox Automotive, Digital retailing tools save time in car buying, improve customer satisfaction while offering dealers opportunities to create more personalized experiences, November 17, 2023 (2023 Digitization of Car Buying Study; car shoppers, buyers and franchise dealers, not powersports).
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, 12 CFR § 1026.24, Advertising (Regulation Z).
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, 15 U.S. Code § 45, Unfair methods of competition unlawful; prevention by Commission.