Cox Automotive brands have a presence in all parts of the auto retail industry.

Now it’s putting them all together to create what it’s calling the “first and only true omnichannel car-buying experience.”

Retail360 is a suite of tools designed to enable that experience by connecting the entire auto retail ecosystem along every step of the purchase and ownership journey. It includes capabilities from Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book, Dealer.com, vAuto, VinSolutions, Dealertrack and Xtime to be rolled out as a series of innovations over the next several quarters.

Cox said Retail360 will use Cox’s proprietary first-party data to modernize marketing, sales, back office and the service lane for dealers and OEMs, bringing deal consistency to the audience, shopping, buying and owning stages.

Cox Automotive’s 2022 Digitization of End-to-End Retail Study found 83% of consumers think they should be able to continue an online buying experience in the store, and 88% think it should save them time while there.

Meeting those expectations is important for dealerships, Cox said, noting 90% of customers surveyed in its 2023 Service Industry Study said a positive experience increases their likelihood of a repeat purchase and 80% said it will bring them in for a service visit.

“Starting with Autotrader back in 1997, Cox Automotive was built to lead digital innovation in auto retail,” Cox Automotive president of retail solutions Lori Wittman said. “We believe in the power of bringing buyer and seller together. Retail360 expands that belief to an omnichannel approach that brings consistency and allows the dealer to personalize all the possible ways today’s buyers may approach their purchase or service visit.

“We can now apply specific data intelligence about the consumer, the vehicle and the deal, all the way through, from submitting a lead to the F&I process to contract signing. By uniting the online and in-store steps, we’ve bridged traditional and digital car buying. Now consumers and dealers can complete the deal faster and easier, and build a lasting relationship.”

In a news release, the company asserted most broken deals are caused by disconnected data and separated workflows when systems can’t follow a shopper’s chosen purchase path, “especially if it zigzags between digital and in-person activities,” and said retailers have “forced consumers to choose” between an online or an in-store purchase path because dealerships handle each way differently.

But Cox Automotive’s latest Car Buying Journey Study showed 43% of car buyers who purchased in the previous 12 months used an omnichannel approach – a combination of online and in-store actions that keeps the deal connected along any path the customer chooses – and 71% of consumers indicated they are likely to complete their next purchase that way.

“Research is telling us that 21% of car purchases in the next few years will be completed totally online,” Jeff Wyler Automotive Family e-commerce director Kevin Frye said in the release. “That leaves nearly 80% of car buyers who want an improved experience that still involves working alongside a salesperson at some point. Omnichannel allows that.

“Cox Automotive is the only provider with the resources and know-how to make omnichannel possible – and to help me deliver brand experiences that close more deals and build loyal customers for life.”

Cox said the first phase of Retail360 — Deal Central — centralizes the deal process from start to finish, giving salespeople, desking managers and F&I staff one place to view, work and finalize all active deals based on shopper insights from the Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book and Dealer.com websites.

The central data source is designed to reduce re-keying of customer information on multiple dealer tools, such as digital retailing, CRM and DMS., and give consumers a more accurate, transparent car-buying experience.

The company said early adopters of Deal Central showed closing rates of 22.2%, more than double the 8.9% of other leads for the three months ending June 1, according to the company’s data. By introducing shoppers to F&l products earlier in the sales process, those dealers recorded median back-end gross profits of $1,108, 10% above other leads.

“With Deal Central, shoppers get flexibility and transparency, which is translating into a better customer experience and an increase in gross for our dealership,” Fox Kia North’s Yuriy Demidko said. “Our sales staff is attributing sales directly to the insights the tool provides the salesperson and the empowerment it gives to the shopper. For example, sales managers are closing deals more easily by matching payments to the shoppers’ buying signals information.”

Cox said its AI-powered F&I intelligence and automation, using AI-led predictive insights from Cox Automotive’s consumer touchpoints and lender network, dealers can streamline finance decisions and automate ID verification and contracting, providing the flexibility to digitally complete deals at the dealership or off-site.

“This is only the beginning,” Cox’s Wittman said. “Breakthroughs in data science, computing power and the ingenuity of our team of experts fuel our ability to invest and innovate so automakers and dealerships never lose their connection to car buyers, nor the ability to give them what they want.”