If people are searching for a new car, many of them are doing it online these days.
According to Allied Market Research, a global market research team that examines the worldwide market, the online car-buying market was valued at just under $240 billion in 2020.
They say that number is expected to be more than 700 billion in 2023.
A new technology that’s been developed by a Syracuse company is taking your online experience to the next level.
Impel is an app and website designed to take customers inside the car-buying process before they ever step foot into a showroom.
“We really enable dealers to sell cars online effectively using our digital engagement platform,” said Devin Daly, one of CEOs and co-founders of Impel.
Impel is a platform designed to help customers find the perfect car for them.
“Replicate the in-store experience as closely as possible when someone is shopping from the comfort of their own home and they’re shopping remotely on their mobile device [or] on their computer,” Daly said. “It gives them that immersive view, let them experience the vehicle as if they’re sitting in the cockpit.”
Daly says there are two main categories of the product. The first is their merchandising solutions, which give consumers a detailed look at cars. The second is their artificial intelligence communication tool.
“Those really automate a lot of the more laborious components of selling a vehicle or servicing a vehicle,” he said. “Instead of requiring a human to respond to a sales inquiry our AI does all of that a lot more quickly and a lot more effectively.”
The auto sales industry has changed significantly over the last few years and some of that is because of COVID-19. Because of the pandemic, dealers had to find different ways to sell their cars which fell right into what Impel is doing.
“It really forced dealers in a matter of two, three, four weeks to figure out how to quickly digitize and facilitate fully remote retailing which played nicely into our hand,” said Daly.
Like all technology, Impel is designed to help you save time and money.
“On average the time in a dealership is three hours,” he said. “You’ve been there longer than you wanted to be, you’ve probably spent more money then you intended to spend and by shopping online you’re not only going to get better transparency, you’re going to have significant personal time savings and a heck of a lot better experience.”
Impel is also helping car dealers streamline their business model. Daley says the AI communication tool can set up appointments for them instead sales people having to spend time emailing potential customers. And that’s just the beginning.
“We see opportunities to use AI to do other parts of life cycle management including selling finance and insurance products post-purchase, selling accessories post-purchase,” Daly said.
