How Payless is helping auto dealers pay more attention to web sales

Even though the Internet is a firmly established fixture on the retail landscape, it’s still underutilized by many auto dealers, particularly as a sales and lead generation tool.

But Payless Car Sales Inc., a Florida-based company that develops franchise programs for individuals or firms who want to own a used car and vehicle rental operation, is developing an e-commerce platform that it believes will generate web sales leads for dealers.

Payless Car Sales, a sister company to Payless Car Rental and a wholly owned subsidiary of Avalon Global Inc., will officially launch the program in January. The web program is a series of e-commerce applications incorporated into a dealer management system that lets Payless franchisees upload vehicle descriptions, images and other information to national online third-party advertising and auction sites all at the same time.

Payless president and COO Michael J. Harley says the program, which is part of the technology system that Payless supplies to its franchisees, allows Payless dealers to use one universal online link to send and update information with third-party sites and receive back web sales leads.

Dealers often put their new and used inventory on various third-party sites to give them a national Internet marketing presence. But the process for many dealers, which can be smaller, family-owned operations with limited technology resources, can be cumbersome and time-consuming.

For dealers who utilize multiple third-party sites, they must often deal with each site individually and constantly update their available inventory, vehicle descriptions and images.

To make it easier for Payless dealers—and to sell more franchises—Harley says that beginning next year his company will supply franchisees with a commerce-enabled dealer management system linked to multiple third-party sites. Payless is also working with other dealer management systems companies such as Reynolds & Reynolds and ADP Dealer Systems to enable a franchisee with a system from either of those vendors to use the Payless e-commerce tools.

Pricing is part of the bundled services a franchisee receives from Payless, which operates similarly to rivals CarMax and others.

Harley says that Payless expects to have agreements in place with about 10 major automotive advertising and auction sites when the program goes live. He says Payless currently has a link with AutoTrader.com, which has been live since last summer.

“Many dealers still aren’t comfortable using e-commerce technology, but the web is here and can be used to generate leads,” Harley says. “This technology will be designed to give Payless franchisees a common link to the major automotive portals and auctions.”

Harley says Payless has more than 51 franchises so far nationwide.