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Internet Ordering Website Set To Transform GM Sales From a customer perspective an ecommerce website is easy to use and definitely beats the traditional method of buying a car. From General Motors’ perspective ShopClickDrive.com was anything but easy, requiring three years of intense work, 8000 employees and the investment of millions of dollars. It may well be exactly the transformation the auto industry has needed.

In an effort to adapt to changing customer demands as well as to differentiate the company, GM brought a vast amount of outsourced IT operations in-house and completely renovated its computer infrastructure, resulting in what could be a sea-change for the U.S. automotive industry. While many customers have been making smaller online purchases such as books and clothing for many years and the trend continues to grow every year, the automotive industry has long been hailed as the holy grail of online sales.

As though there weren’t already enough challenges for GM in this undertaking, it is important to keep in mind that GM does not sell directly to customers. Instead, it sells exclusively through a large dealer network. Over 30 percent of the manufacturer’s 4300 dealers are on board already with more expected to join going forward. With a close rate of 30 percent, dealers have a lot to gain as they benefit from a massive channel to an eager customer base leveraging GM’s massive investment in equipment and custom software. None of the dealers could possibly have stepped up to this investment themselves and yet they stand to benefit to an almost unimaginable degree.
GM’s massive investment in technology allows the company to provide a virtual bridge between their dealers and prospective buyers. GM insists that none of the information collected is saved by the manufacturer, but is instead simply