While most business are still in the mindset that things well eventually get back to normal, Autodeal embraced the changes and looked for ways to adapt.
AutoDeal.com.ph has been serving as a reliable go-to platform for car buyers in the country for 6 years now. With an average 3 million monthly site visits, over 350 partner local dealerships, and over 2,000 partner sales representatives, it’s the biggest digital platform in the Philippine automotive space.
The site offers its visitors comprehensive information about vehicles to ease up the journey of researching for the best fitting vehicle for every consumer type. Its content varies from industry news, written and video car reviews, car comparisons, and feature articles, to name a few. AutoDeal website visitors benefit from comparing vehicles by price, specs, security features, and other special attributes.
They don’t need to visit multiple websites to get in touch, send an inquiry, and book a test drive with a local dealership in their area as they can do all these on the AutoDeal platform, therefore minimizing significant amount of research time.
As advocates of a convenient and transparent car buying experience, AutoDeal founders Daniel Scott and Christopher Franks have been constantly coming up with smart solutions to offer Filipino car buyers.
Site features include the 3 Quote component, which distributes a customer’s inquiry to a maximum of 3 participating AutoDeal partner dealers to help the buyer compare multiple pricing options; the Auto Loan Calculator feature, which presents a calculation of down payment and monthly amortization of a car loan from its partner banks; and the newest feature, the ‘Buy Online’ component, which allows consumers to buy their dream car online, and pay for the reservation fee directly on the AutoDeal website in just a few clicks.
AutoDeal’s mission is to offer a seamless, fitting, and fully digitized car buying experience to consumers, cover the car ownership cycle, and provide transparency in the whole process.
AutoDeal’s business model
Driven by a solid technical arm, AutoDeal provides a highly efficient and convenient process for the users to conduct the majority of their car buying activity.
“Our business model has always been connecting a car buyer and a dealer together, via lead referral, to create a car sale. Receiving quotations from different car dealers, reviewing them, and accepting the best deal – all done from a screen to eliminate time-consuming trips to various dealerships – is now made possible for consumers via the AutoDeal platform.’, stated Daniel Scott, AutoDeal Co-Founder and CEO. “With an extensive amount of SaaS technology for brands, dealers, and sales agents, we have developed a strong technical backbone, which allows a dealer to track a customer from a lead all the way to a sale.”, added Scott.
Opportunities amid trying times
The automotive industry is being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and with the imposition of an enhanced community quarantine, car dealerships, as a non-essential business, were pressed to temporarily close their showrooms and adapt a work-from-home set-up.
“We have been impacted in some areas of day to day business, but we have also seen many digital opportunities. As our partners think of innovative ways to conduct business moving forward, we are able to accelerate the development of features that perhaps would not have been possible in a regular working climate.”, shared Scott.
Embracing changes to adapt to challenges
Scott and Franks are continuously working on smart digital solutions to fully digitize the consumers’ car buying journey. Disrupting the way Filipinos shop for cars by coming up with more innovative services available at the consumers’ fingertips is the way AutoDeal embraces the changes brought about not just by the pandemic, but by the growing on-demand consumer lifestyle too.
“As consumers are getting more accustomed to on-demand services with short waiting time, they expect more solutions of this nature from various industries, and automotive is no different.”, stated Christopher Franks, AutoDeal Co-Founder.
Buying a car online is now made possible through the AutoDeal platform. The tech startup is launching the ‘Buy Online’ feature, which will allow users to choose the car and color they want, select the dealer, and make a reservation payment on the vehicle. AutoDeal is working to bring more of the traditional car buying process online, therefore helping the customers avoid queuing in banks and multiple showroom visits, allowing them to make more efficient use of their time.
“For the last six years, AutoDeal has persevered to deliver on the promise of “Car Buying, Simplified.”. We believe that the new solutions we introduce to the Philippine automotive landscape will contribute to a hassle-free, quick, and a more agreeable car shopping experience.”, added Franks.
Business lessons from a pandemic
Keeping an optimistic attitude and focusing on the bigger picture helped the two young founders pursue innovation in the middle of a crisis.
“I think once you have got over the initial shock of a terrible situation like this, you have to start thinking about what are the new problems that will now occur and how do you solve it as a business, or what opportunities may arise and how that steers your product development. You have to look past the difficult situation and imagine what society will be like, what the new norms will be, and prepare for that.”, shared Scott.
For both business partners, protecting their employees is a priority as they believe surviving a crisis like this together will only make them a stronger team than ever. Enduring tough times will only make them see the prosperous times together in the future.
