A third of dealers are leaving their business exposed to online finance brokers by not offering motor finance on their website.

Statistics from Google show that 71% of customers want to start their finance journey online – and that where dealers don’t give them this option, they are potentially handing over their business to others.

Many dealers in this position believe that they will not lose a significant amount of their motor finance. I suppose the managers of other businesses such as Kodak and Comet whose markets were disrupted by digital innovation felt the same.

The fact is that if you do not offer an integrated, online motor finance on your web site, there is a good chance that your customers are looking elsewhere for their finance needs – and may end up using an online broker.

Ironically, all that these online brokers will tend to do is, through a process of disintermediation, pass your customer back to you without any finance commission and, in some cases, without an additional fee, too.

Frankly, if the whole one-third went this way then finance income would be lost in its entirety with no incremental sales. The effect on a dealer’s bottom line would be significant and would further impact already, low margins.

In this instance, the first that dealers would know was when a large element of their Google Analytics showed visitors searching on their website and then moving to a full page advert before disappearing.

What should your solution be?

Well, there are now many different ways to add motor finance to your website, from simple plug-ins to sophisticated integrated solutions.

They can be adopted at a low cost and in a matter of days in some cases.

The question I would ask dealers in this position is simple. If you don’t use one of them, exactly how will you protect your finance revenue from online brokers?

Author: iVendi chief executive James Tew (pictured)