A pointy pivot to video and different instruments of digital retailing — together with a concentrate on speaking with prospects — helped a Kia dealership in Newfoundland and Labrador thrive all through the pandemic and ongoing stock shortages.

Western Kia, in Nook Brook on the west coast of Newfoundland, elevated its new-vehicle retail gross sales 15 per cent final yr to 402 models, in contrast with 2019, whereas general web revenue rose 46 per cent mentioned Basic Supervisor Jacob Cluney. In distinction, nationwide gross sales over the identical interval slumped 20 per cent, in response to the Automotive Information Analysis & Knowledge Middle.

And thru June, Western Kia’s gross sales have been up 38 per cent in contrast with the identical interval in 2020. Throughout Canada, the rise was 33 per cent.

Final yr’s efficiency earned Vendor Principal Michelle Melendy the Canadian Car Sellers Affiliation (CADA) 2021 Laureate Award for Retail Operations. It additionally helped the dealership establish methods that may proceed to be carried out after the pandemic subsides.

Western Kia is a part of the Western Group of Corporations, which additionally operates Toyota and Mazda shops. Nook Brook — a metropolis of 32,000, 690 kilometres west of St. John’s — is also house to Ford, Basic Motors, Stellantis, Nissan, Hyundai and Honda dealerships.

ONLINE LIKE IN-PERSON

The core of Western Kia’s pandemic response: “Something a buyer can obtain right here in our showroom, we wish them to have the ability to do nearly as properly,” Cluney mentioned.

For instance, when COVID19 saved prospects at house, every product adviser created a library of walk-around movies of latest autos. This, Cluney mentioned, “gave our cellphone and on-line leads as near an in-person expertise as attainable.”

The personalised movies, which the dealership calls selfie movies, permit gross sales advisers to introduce themselves to prospects. They then conduct a video that includes the automobile of curiosity.

Past making a seamless digital course of for purchasers, the dealership’s objective was to set itself other than opponents, Cluney mentioned.

“It doesn’t take a lot to beat an automatic response,” he mentioned, “however we needed to take it a step additional by accompanying our follow-up with hyperlinks to those movies.”

The personalised video was a constant a part of Western Kia’s gross sales course of over the previous yr and Cluney mentioned it contributed to the shop’s development regardless of COVID-19’s financial fallout.

The dealership continues to replace the gross sales workers’s digital-content libraries as new autos arrive and has since integrated videoconferencing apps similar to FaceTime, Skype or Microsoft Groups.

AN INDUSTRY EDUCATION

Regardless of stock shortages prompted largely by the continuing world shortage of microchips, Western Kia preserved gross sales by educating purchasers about trade tendencies and preserving them updated on their automobile’s anticipated arrival, Cluney mentioned. The dealership will ship prospects articles “we really feel are related that give a third-party perspective on what’s taking place within the trade, so that they really feel knowledgeable and have life like expectations.

“These autos are out of sight, but it surely’s vital to not allow them to slip out of thoughts,” Cluney mentioned. Some prospects have needed to wait so long as six months for supply, he mentioned.

Usually, Western Kia could have 60 to 80 new autos on the lot, however that fell to 30 or fewer through the pandemic. In early August, the shop had simply 16 autos out there.

In a bid to create a way of possession “together with a bit enjoyable” all through the buying course of, the dealership just lately started mailing a celebratory “Congrats, it’s a Kia” start certificates to the shopper as soon as the automobile is assigned an identification quantity, Cluney mentioned.

DIGITAL TOOLS ARE JUST TOOLS

Western Kia launched its digital retailing platform in 2018, making use of it first to used-vehicle gross sales however ramping it up through the pandemic.

“We had the appropriate instruments and sources already in place,” Cluney mentioned. “So when the pandemic hit, it was a neater transition to begin leaning even heavier into this path.”

Dealership marketing consultant Dominic Sigouin, president of Montreal-based Noahvik Consultants, credit Western Kia for recognizing that efficient digital efforts concentrate on the “buyer journey.”

“Digital retailing isn’t the answer; it’s only a software,” Sigouin mentioned. “It’s all concerning the course of and what you need it to do for the shopper journey.”

The dealership additionally produces all of its on-line advertising and marketing movies and commercials in-house — a transfer that since 2018 has decreased promoting prices on common by 54 per cent, to $236 per unit offered. The advertisements are additionally posted throughout the dealership’s social channels.

Cluney, the overall supervisor, acknowledged that being in a comparatively distant, rural space with little competitors close by helps decrease the necessity for advert spending.

In addition to Kia autos, the advertisements typically function the shoppers and their households pursuing conventional Newfoundland actions similar to a “boil-up” — meals cooked over an open hearth on the seaside.

“We attempt to use each choice to embed locally,” mentioned Vendor Principal Melendy.

As of the primary week of August, the boil-up video had generated about 11,000 views on YouTube and 15,000 on Western Kia’s Fb web page.

This yr, Western Kia produced three Tremendous Bowl advertisements, which have been broadcast throughout the Atlantic area.

Whereas the dealership is emphasizing internet marketing, TV advertisements stay a part of its advertising and marketing technique, Melendy mentioned.

“We should not have a younger inhabitants in Newfoundland, and a lot of the inhabitants nonetheless watches the TV night information,” she mentioned.

Cluney mentioned he doesn’t faux that he and his workforce have all of the solutions throughout these unprecedented occasions. “Though we discovered some issues that labored for us … there have been a number of failures as properly. I feel the largest distinction was the truth that we weren’t afraid to make errors or get one thing mistaken.

“We failed quick, tailored and continued ahead.”