TOTAL Eclipse

Many years ago, during the internet “bubble”, an associate and I were debating whether or not the web would eventually replace virtually all brick-and-mortar stores. The very fact that we were having that discussion is an indication of why there was a bubble in the first place; I have to admit it is now slightly embarrassing to admit the conversation happened. Clearly there is no indication that a scenario like that would ever come to pass in the imaginable future. However, a recent car buying experience highlights how channels, distribution points, or other business elements can be if not totally eclipsed certainly made irrelevant to those that are comfortable with a mouse and keyboard.

I have owned a decent number of vehicles in my time: sports cars to family wagons, Volkswagen to Ford, new to “pre-owned”. One thing I have learned is that buying new cars is, IMHO, wasteful. I say this with all due respect to those who live in the new car biz, including my father who supported me and my family for the better part of my childhood by selling and managing the financing of new cars. All that to say, I recently bought a used car.

My son, the first in a long line of children waiting for the provision of a ride from yours truly, is going to be sixteen in December and thus I planned to give him my car. Since the car needs some repairs and cleaning up, I thought I would start me search early. So, about three months ago I started the efforts to find a new ride assuming it would be a slow process and that I would be able to wait for the right one to come along. The process was not slow and could have been completed without direct contact. The reason it was not slow is easy to explain and has nothing to due with the advancement of on line research tools or e commerce, rather it is directly attributable to me being too consumed with the browsing process to allow it to go on any longer. You see, after about six weeks I was too distracted by the process to concentrate on much else, so I decided at that point it had to end. But I am getting ahead of myself, the second point was the one I set out to post about: no traditional channel required.

I began my search by using what I consider the best source for car reliability ratings, Consumer Reports. This site allows you to research and compare almost any late model car you can imagine. With ratings driven by user questionnaires this is a predecessor to the vogue user-generated content that is so talked about recently. After using this site to eliminate the weaklings and create a short list, it was off to the many on line super-stores to compare prices, mileage, etc. I began on the CarMax website and also spent time on eBay. Several other sites that I was less familiar with turned out to be very useful for comparison including Auto Web and CraigsList. I also peeked into several car dealer sites and newspaper’s on line classifieds, all of which were less than helpful. The things that separated the useful sites from the not so useful sites were selection, ease of use, and ease of transacting.

In the end, I had about three cars on my short list. I found a great deal on one in Tennessee, but it turned out to have a rebuilt title which killed the financing. I secured my financing from eLoan with out ever picking up the phone. In the end I found an amazing deal on a car in West Palm Beach via eBay. After exchanging a few emails with the seller it was time for the first human contact, a phone call. I rang up Harvey at Florida Motor Cars. The call was simply to verify that I would be able to test drive the car prior to handing over the check, this if course was no problem. I certainly could have had this same discussion via email, so in reality this was an optional contact.

To get from Atlanta to West Palm I needed a plane ticket, this was easy to manage via several searches on PriceLine, Orbitz, Hotwire, etc. Once the right fare was found the actual booking and ticketing was all electronic. The car is great, the process was fun, and in reality I could have had the car delivered to my front door if I desired. There was no mandatory face-to-face contact required.

So, while I am not having discussions about the end of retail store fronts these days, looking back perhaps that conversation some seven years ago was not so foolish at heart after all. Does anyone doubt that real estate, finance, retail, wholesale, B2B, etc. are all heading further into the digital space? Can anyone question that our kids and their children will not use the same buying channels and methods we use today? There is perhaps not a total eclipse on the way, but the Internet and its associated technologies are a revolution and we are in the early days.

J