The process of buying a car has been the same for close to a century, and the purchasing experience hasn’t kept pace. It’s the same song and dance for consumers – they go to a dealership and hope that the visit provides them with enough information to confidently make the single largest discretionary purchase of their lives.
It’s clear that change in automotive retailing is long overdue, but how do you evolve an age-old model when you’re selling such a high-involvement, high-cost product?
Don will share insights on how Hyundai, as well as its luxury division Genesis, are disrupting the industry by introducing omni-channel models to better meet the needs of today’s consumers. The two brands are taking different approaches to digital retailing, a process that requires a high level of trust and transparency - traits that the traditional auto purchasing process infamously lacks.
For Hyundai, success was found in modernizing the customer experience by bringing more of the purchasing process online while introducing new digital elements to dealerships, creating a seamless transition between the two mediums. Genesis takes this a step further by completely flipping the traditional business model on its head. Having launched in 2016, Genesis took the opportunity to reinvent the foundation of automotive sales by bringing the entire customer transaction process online, supplemented by at-home service and a growing network of boutique-style showrooms.
Don will explain how both brands have successfully broken through the walls of traditional brick and mortar retail, providing a strong case study that proves evolution in even the most long-standing, rigid business models is possible.
Don Romano
President and CEO
Hyundai Canada