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If COVID-19 hasn’t convinced car dealers of the necessity of a vibrant online retail presence, maybe Cyber Monday 2020 will. Even before the pandemic, Cyber Monday was growing as the virtual twin (literally!) of Black Friday. Cyber Monday emerged as shoppers logged online the Monday after Thanksgiving to check store websites for any missed deals from Black Friday. 

Adobe Analytics, a marketing data software company, is predicting—in spite of or due to the pandemic—that Cyber Monday 2020 (Nov. 30) will garner $12.7 billion in online sales, up from the $9.4 billion in e-commerce in 2019.

No dealership has escaped the evolution of the automotive industry due to COVID-19. Since the onset of the pandemic, businesses around the globe have had to respond accordingly. As the world slowly re-opened in a new way, consumers were quick on the draw to review businesses' safety precautions, interactions, conveniences and more.

Those who rose to the occasion attracted clients. Those who made mistakes, no matter how small, suffered at the hands of the Internet. How you continue in your COVID-19 response will set you apart as the pandemic and coming months unfold.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the first half of 2020, it’s that toilet paper was never the answer.

That in mind, we press on, looking first to survive, then creatively thrive. July, which is about level four of Jumanji, has presented a game advantage in the form of a delayed tax day. After a few difficult months, a final wave of income tax returns makes it possible for consumers to take the bait on a new vehicle. America threw us a bone and we’re going to accessorize it.

As COVID-19 shut down America as we knew it, extroverts all across America found themselves taking refuge in their cars. What started with just taking a drive, turned into eating take-out in the driveway. Before we knew what was happening, kids’ birthday parties morphed into drive-by parades. Campgrounds closed and truck beds became the go-to spot for a night under the stars.

As dealers across the nation adjust to selling vehicles online, it’s imperative that we don’t skip vehicle personalization. The easiest way to ensure customers and salespeople have a fair shot at a perfectly adorned vehicle is to make your accessory link easy to find. Trip and fall over it easy. “There it is again” easy. “I didn’t find the link, the link found me” kind of easy. When you strategically place your personalization link, you make your salesperson’s life easier, and your customer more likely to buy. 

Margin compression matters now more than ever. As dealers adapt to selling cars digitally, or with skeleton crews, monthly sales volumes are on a slippery slope. Though our present industry reality is less than ideal, we aren’t without hope. We have the tools to make every car sale count, to the extent of tipping this month’s scale back into balance, precarious as it may be.