The sheer size of some of the booths at this year’s National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention & Expo was just short of staggering.
On the surface, the consolidation in the automotive supplier community, (mostly under the banner of Cox Automotive which has brought together a host of industry titans under one powerful umbrella) has meant there are fewer booths to visit at NADA.
The reality, however, is that the interconnectedness between some of their offerings, and the range of services they are now able to offer dealerships, means you need to visit the booth with a tour guide and a navigator to make sense of it all.
Even some of the people working the booths at this year’s NADA were hard pressed to fully explain their full product suite and what would happen with the many areas of overlap between some former competitors who are now allied under one brand.
Regardless of how all that shakes out, the reality is that their offerings are getting more sophisticated all the time. Many of them are taking direct aim at offering products to solve the disconnect between the quality of the automotive retail experience and those in other industries.
There’s a chance that their sheer scale might provide them the resources to narrow that customer experience gap, with software systems better able to talk with one another, although I would never rule out the ability of a smaller agile company to develop something innovative to fill the void. Interesting times lie ahead.
The consolidation of the supplier community is interesting when you consider how the industry itself is consolidating under large dealer groups.
That means the stakes of winning or losing one customer are much bigger than it once was for the suppliers.
Some of the leaders from the large dealer groups from Canada who visited NADA this year spent a lot of time in those booths trying to make sense of it all.
In our bid to understand it all, this year Canadian auto dealer dispatched a team of editors and videographers to cover the event. We produced tweets, posted stories and photos, and sent out a daily e-blast featuring news stories and videos shot, edited and produced on site.
On most days, our team were the first to arrive and the last to leave the press room at night as we fine-tuned the coverage for you.
You’ll see elements of that coverage in this issue, and online, including dozens of video interviews shot on the show floor.
There’s no question that it’s a busy few days for our team, but it reflects our commitment to you — our readers — to provide the most comprehensive and relevant stories, analysis and features for Canada’s auto dealers.
These are interesting times, and you can rest assured we’ll devote the time and energy to do our best to help you understand the impact of the changes so that you can continue to run profitable dealerships that provide life-changing experiences and products.
