Customer Gateway Launches: Helps Bridge Digital Retails Online to In-store Gap

By Dana Cone.
Updated Mar 10, 2022

LAS VEGAS (PRWEB) March 10, 2022 - eLEND Solutions, an automotive FinTech company focused on accelerating transactional digital buying experiences, today announced at The NADA Show 2022, the launch of Customer Gateway, a certified, secure platform that enables car buyers/shoppers to complete more buying steps remotely (away from the dealership). By simplifying the purchasing process, and eliminating online to in-store experience gaps, Customer Gateway can reduce in-store transaction times a key pain point for both car buyers and auto dealers.

Digital retailing does not mean that the traditional sales process goes away. Buyers are always going to prefer to shop and transact on their own terms, so sales processes must be flexible enough to meet the needs of all buying scenarios online only, in-store only, and hybrid. This is why we developed Customer Gateway to help unify the buying experiences and enable frictionless online to in-store transitions by connecting workflows, said Pete MacInnis, CEO and Founder of eLEND Solutions.

Customer Gateway allows car shoppers/buyers, prior to a dealership visit, to re-access and update previously submitted information and upload any required documentation (i.e. Driver License, Proof of Insurance, Income, etc.), while also tying their vehicle of interest, trade, cash down and desired payment terms to the actual credit application process. It streamlines the experience and enhances continuity by integrating with platforms involved in the sales and finance deal flow, including DealerTrack & RouteOne, securely moving critical information between the dealerships CRM, Inventory and F&I platforms.

Missing or problematic integrations create information disconnects and inefficiencies, which is directly related to consumers #1 car buying complaint: it takes too long to purchase a vehicle. Customer Gateway makes the entire buying experience easier and more efficient for buyers and sellers. It is focused on facilitating consumers and auto dealers common goal: Sell the car as efficiently and transparently as possible, continued MacInnis.

In the first month of Customer Gateways soft launch, 99% of the nearly 5,300 customer documents uploads were customer-initiated, unsolicited by the dealer offering compelling evidence that consumers crave opportunities to do more of the sales process remotely.

Customer Gateway is a plus for dealers because it makes more information about the customers buying power transparent, earlier in the engagement - enabling the dealer to work closely with their potential buyers right from the start, quote realistic payment terms, structure more profitable deals faster and improve closing ratios.

Dealerships who have piloted Gateway confirm its benefits: Said Rob Gonzalez of Rush Chevrolet Texas: eLEND Solutions is a core component of our Digital Retail strategy, with almost 500 customers monthly getting pre-qualified upfront in the sales process with their online tool. The Customer Gateway feature takes it to the next level with a good percentage of those customers updating their information and uploading documents to speed up the process.

Tony Klarakis of Dan Cummins Chevrolet Buick KY- agrees: eLEND Solutions generates almost 800 online credit apps per month for us. When they turned on the Customer Gateway, our customers started uploading documents on their own, helping us get deals done much faster and more efficiently. This is Real Digital Retailing for Dealers!

How Customer Gateway works:

Customer Gateway enters the market as auto dealerships continue to struggle with shortening transaction times: the time spent in dealerships by consumers has decreased by only five minutes in the past five years, Cox Automotive(1) reports, in spite of the pandemic and accelerated digital retailing adoption. Dealers, meanwhile, overwhelmingly agree that there is disconnect between online shopping and instore buying and that it must be solved to shorten transaction times and improve customer experience(2).

The biggest barriers to digital retailings ability to improve transaction times, PVR and customer satisfaction, are the chronic information and process disconnect from the online to instore process. Customer Gateway can solve this, shifting the information pendulum back towards the auto dealer and helping to transition Digital Retailing from a Lead Generation model to a Deal Generation model and that is a game-changer, concluded MacInnis.

The company will be demonstrating Customer Gateway at the 2022 NADA Show at booth 4307W.

About eLEND Solutions: DealerCentric Solutions Inc. (dba eLEND SolutionsTM) is a privately-held automotive FinTech company focused on deal generation solutions that power transactional digital buying experiences for the retail automotive industry. The platform specializes in digital credit, identity, and finance solutions for remote and in-store shoppers, designed to accelerate conversions of digital end-to-end purchase experiences concluding with fundable, transactable deal structures.

For more information, please visit http://www.elendsolutions.com.

Contact Media Relations: Melanie Webber, mWEBB Communications, (424) 603-4340, melanie(at)mwebbcom(dot)com Crystal Hartwell, mWEBB Communications, (714) 987-1016, crystal(at)mwebbcom(dot)com

(1) Cox Automotive 2022 Car Buyer Journey study - the time consumers spent with the auto dealership dropped only five minutes in five years: from 2:42 minutes in 2017 to 2:37 minutes in 2021 https://www.coxautoinc.com/news/2021-car-buyer-journey-study/ (2) https://www.elendsolutions.com/press_release/survey-auto-dealers-disconnected-about-solving-digital-retailing-disconnects/