Digitalization, paired with an increasing end-customer affinity with e-commerce, has led to the emergence of new touchpoints throughout the customer lifecycle. By digitalizing their traditional business processes, OEMs and their dealer networks can engage and interact with their customers in many new ways.

As they do with most other retail experiences, consumers demand online platforms that enable product searches and comparisons, and ultimately enable them to finalize the buying decision online. Interestingly, so far the automotive industry has not adopted e-commerce to the level that other industries have achieved.