BENTONVILLE, Ark. -

Earlier in its fiscal year, America’s Car-Mart began to make its credit application available online, so the chain of buy-here, pay-here stores could begin the underwriting process with potential buyers before they arrive at one its dealerships.

After announcing operating results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2020, Car-Mart president and chief executive officer Jeff Williams described what the addition to its online platform did for the company.

“We’ve had our online credit application in place, just beginning this fiscal year, and we’re getting a lot of traffic online,” Williams told the investment community during Car-Mart’s quarterly conference call. “We’re getting a lot of applications online, and we’re doing a fair job of converting those applications to physical visits to the dealerships.

“The close rate for those sales is pretty high,” Williams continued. “We’re really fairly new into that effort at this point, but we’re optimistic. We’re good now, but we’re going to get better as far as our digital efforts. But they certainly have increased our traffic and we’ve seen some good results so far.”

Car-Mart retailed a total of 39,600 vehicles in the quarter, working out to be sales volume productivity of 30.6 retail units sold per store per month. That performance is up from 27.9 vehicles per store per month for the prior-year quarter.

With customers getting the credit process started online, Williams explained it allows Car-Mart personnel to stress the company’s value proposition when potential customers arrive at one of its 145 locations.

“We do emphasize our lower interest rate, our shorter term, the total cost of ownership with Car-Mart, and then the peace of mind that’s so important to the quality of lives of our customers,” Williams said during the call. “When you put all that together, what we offer is superior to other offerings in the market.

“There are a lot of other offerings in the market and competition is very high,” he continued. “But we’re doing good in a market because of our efforts to really block and tackle and treat these customers at the highest level.”

In a press release distributed by the company Williams added, “As we have said, we believe that most all of our dealerships, under the direction of our talented general managers, can support a higher number of customers over time.  We have significant growth opportunities by leveraging our current footprint. The top-line growth we are experiencing supports this view.”

Earlier in the quarter, Car-Mart entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the ongoing dealership assets of Taylor Motor Company and Auto Credit of Southern Illinois, based in Benton, Ill.

“We are very excited for this opportunity and to be gaining three dealership locations in Marion, Benton and Mount Vernon, Illinois, as well as a vehicle reconditioning location in Benton, Illinois.  The existing finance receivables will be excluded from the purchase and will be collected by the seller.  The transaction will include leases on the related properties.  Illinois will represent our 12th state and these locations are near existing Car-Mart dealerships in surrounding states,” Williams said at the time of the move.

“Taylor Motors has served southern Illinois for over 88 years and has strong sales volume productivity with a dominant market position in its service areas. The company has operated at a very high level for over 25 years under the leadership of Steve Taylor, a third-generation owner, and his talented, experienced team of associates,” Williams continued.

“Like Car-Mart, Steve and his team focus on keeping customers on the road by selling good, solid mechanically sound vehicles and taking care of customers after the sale. Steve and his team will be joining our team and Steve will be contributing to our expansion efforts into the future,” Williams went on to say.

While the transaction was expected to close in January, Car-Mart said it was still in the works when it shared its Q3 results in February.

“We are close to completing our acquisition of Taylor Motors. We had hoped that it would have closed in January, but it’s taking a little longer than expected to obtain the necessary licenses in a new state for us,” Williams said, who then shared details about the company’s future growth plans.

“We plan to open our Cabot, Ark., dealership in the fourth quarter, which will give us six new dealerships for fiscal year 2020,” he said. “New dealership openings are an important part of our growth plans and we will continue to add locations at a rate that matches our ability to support this high touch business.

“We also have locations in Edmond, Okla.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Norman, Okla., in process for this upcoming fiscal year,” Williams went on to say.