Use Keboola to automate your data engineering and build advanced analytics to get a competitive advantage
Unlike what the mainstream media would like you to believe, the modern auto industry is not just Tesla. All the initiatives do not revolve around artificial intelligence, deep learning algorithms, and autonomous vehicles.
Automotive manufacturers, resellers, car dealerships, and other stakeholders in the automotive sector are fighting a different battle.
The global chip shortage has stalled new car manufacturing and the supply-chain issues have delayed car availability driving prices of new and used cars through the roof. With demand at its peak, the market is extremely volatile and hard to predict. And things are unlikely to get better anytime soon.
How can car dealerships, automakers, and other automotive companies adjust to the volatile ecosystem and keep ahead of the competition?
To answer this question, we need to understand the problem first.
The fast pace of change in the automotive industry makes it hard to steer your car dealership or product development in the right direction. With one eye on the road to success and the other in the rear window watching for competition, automotive companies face multiple challenges.
Automotive companies have data dispersed across multiple systems: local point-of-sales, e-commerce transactions, sales reports, digital ads, and more. Without centralized data connecting all the different touchpoints, it is hard to see the road to success.
Aligning inventory orders between supply (manufacturers, resellers), demand (customers), and prices that jumped over 40% is a juggling act hard to maintain. Let alone spot useful trends.
The modern generations and legislature is calling for different cars than in the past. Customer satisfaction is not just about speed, luxury, and comfort. It is also about the impact it has on the environment. Understanding the shifting customer sentiment helps car manufacturers drive better product development (emissions, fuel consumption, …).
On the other hand, with no preferred cars on the market, the consumers are shifting to models they did not consider before. Car dealerships need to figure out which models to advertise to consumers to increase sales. Should you target first-time drivers with Ford F-Series or Toyota Highlander? Are the older generations more likely to buy with an extended warranty if their first model choice is not available?
The modern customer purchased 30% of cars online (vs 2% pre-pandemic). Digitalizing all inventory records and offering a superb online shopping experience is stalled with bad data and sluggish technology.
And suddenly both manufacturers and dealerships need to communicate on platforms they have not tackled as extensively beforehand. The modern consumer researches cars online (forums, price-comparison platforms, social media, …). And the automotive industry needs to follow these new frontiers if it wants to stay ahead of the competition.
The time customers spend researching and buying cars is shortening every year since 2019. Successful automotive companies need to catch an already narrow and closing window of opportunity to make the sale while it's hot.
Consumers are hungry for near real-time data sets (inventory, prices, “coming on XX-YY date”, …) that can help drive their purchase decision-making.
Top car dealerships and car manufacturers have witnessed record profits in the post-pandemic world. Money makes it easier to dominate the market. With a cash surplus, companies that are ahead can invest in predictive analytics, stronger business intelligence and analytic tools, process optimization and automation, and other levers that further increase their competitive advantage.
To keep ahead of the competition, manufacturers and dealerships need to respond fast on the online and offline fronts before the gap closes.
Building on your existing automotive data and adding advanced analytics on top of it can help you tackle these challenges. Let’s look at how this looks in practice.
Olfin Car is a leading seller of new and used cars in Central Europe with additional services in the field of financing, authorized car service, and insurance. With the help of Keboola and Marketing BI, Olfin Car was able to turn the tides of the current car crisis into an advantage. This is how they did it:
Read the full Olfin Car’s success story
Keboola is a Data Stack as a Service platform that takes care of all of your automotive data demands. With its set of features, Keboola helps automate and streamline all data operations that drive business growth.
… and many more. Keboola covers all the use cases of data operations, from data governance to data democratization, and every engineering nook and analytic insight in between.
Ready to get started?
Get in touch so we can discuss how Keboola can help you automate and streamline the data processes in your automotive company.
