Auto E-solutions Start-up to Bring E-commerce to Auto Dealer Websites
16 November 2000
Auto E-solutions Start-up to Bring E-commerce to Auto Dealer Websites
ATLANTA--Nov. 16, 2000--DealerCentric(TM), LLC, (www.dealercentric.com), a newly formed automotive e-solutions company, announced today that they intend to simplify the online process of consumers' buying vehicles directly from a dealer's web site.
"Today consumers can buy cars online from Internet brokers and automotive marketplaces, but what consumers really want is to buy and finance cars from dealerships in their community, from dealers they know, and from local dealers that will provide them service," says DealerCentric's founder and CEO/President Roger Hilterbrandt.
"Right now, that's not possible on the Internet because only about five percent of the nation's 22,000 auto dealers offer online financing and purchasing options," he added. "We plan to change that by providing e-commerce solutions that allow dealers to offer online financing and online loan approval right from their web sites."
More and more, automobile dealers feel threatened by online automobile sales portals, by manufacturers' web sites, by customers' buying vehicles on the Internet, and, most importantly, by the manufacturers' eliminating the dealer's role as an intermediary, explained Derek Thomas, DealerCentric Chief Operating Officer and company founder. "DealerCentric lessens those threats by helping dealers offer online shopping, online buying, online financing and online insuring - all on their sites."
"We will provide dealers with everything they need for e-commerce: networking and connectivity plus the Internet tools and e-commerce solutions essential to add financing, online inventory selection, and other e-commerce capability to their web sites," said Hilterbrandt.
"We know there's a major market for our products and services," he added. Over 90% of all dealerships have web sites, and according to Forrester Research, by 2003, more than 8 million people will shop for cars online.
But when these consumers shop online, they may not find what they want at the online auto portal. Dealers and manufacturers just aren't supporting the auto portals and online brokers, said Hilterbrandt. Ford, GM, Honda, and DaimlerChrysler all have threatened their dealers with economic sanctions if they sell cars to online third-party brokers.
Plus, according to recent stories in the automotive trade press, a lot of dealers are pulling out of agreements that they had with these online auto portals, he added.
The time is right for a company like DealerCentric that puts the dealer first and gives the dealer the power to sell and finance vehicles online, explained Hilterbrandt.
"Right now no other company offers the dealer what we do," Thomas added. "Our focus is on the dealer; we truly are dealer centric."
DealerCentric will offer three major e-commerce solutions to dealers:
Portal-to-Dealer (P2D), which delivers funded and non-funded leads generated from automotive financing sites; Dealer Direct, which enables dealer web sites with credit scoring, financing, purchasing and leasing options; and Dealer Connect, which provides innovative networking and connectivity solutions.
The P2D solution will be available by the end of fourth quarter 2000 and the other two services by first quarter 200l. DealerCentric will unveil and showcase its entire product line at the 2001 National Automobile Dealership Association show, February 3-6, in Las Vegas.
About DealerCentric
DealerCentric is a business-to-business (B2B)/ Application Service Provider (ASP) that designs technologies and services to bring e-business to the automotive dealership. Based in Norcross, Ga., the company was founded in August 2000 and received its first round of funding from its founders. Leading DealerCentric is a team of executives with years of experience marketing products to automotive dealers as well as to the financial and insurance industries. The company's overall strategy is to provide local dealers with Internet leads as well as everything the dealers need for e-commerce: networking and connectivity plus other e-commerce solutions essential to adding online inventory selection and e-commerce capability to their web sites. To learn more about DealerCentric, visit the company's website at www.dealercentric.com or call 770.300.0950.