QUEST Motor Group has rolled out GForces’ NetDirector Auto-e software across its Essex sites to meet increasing consumer demand for online car sales.
The ecommerce platform enables end-to-end online car purchases and will drive the group’s used car sales for its Braintree and Maldon dealerships.
The family-owned Essex retailer said it collaborated with GForces after identifying a need to bring in a new ecommerce strategy and create an omnichannel digital presence for customers.
The retailer sells Vauxhall, Citroen, Suzuki and Isuzu vehicles through its used car platform and has already achieved online sales, including one customer who placed her order online, received an instant credit acceptance and collected her car the following day.
Paul Stokes, head of online retailing at GForces, said he believed this latest ecommerce integration success was a strong endorsement for GForces.
‘Quest Motor Group is already realising the opportunities that ecommerce offers – proof that the public wants to buy cars online. This is the perfect example of how an established dealer group can complement its traditional sales routes with the flexibility and effectiveness of a digital sales platform.’
Changing conditions
Conor Judge, group marketing manager at Quest Motor Group, said: ‘Throughout its long history, Quest Motor Group has continued to thrive by adapting to meet new consumer expectations. By partnering with GForces, we are now harnessing the full potential of digital retailing with a fully integrated online customer experience.’
Starting life as Quest Coaches in 1924, the business has a long history of anticipating and adapting to changing market conditions.
After thriving as a public transport provider in the early years of motorised travel, the business became the Vauxhall and Bedford dealer for south-east Essex in the 1930s.
Following significant contributions to the war effort, the company continued to prosper over the following decades with the addition of car repair and vehicle hire services, commercial workshops and a UK-wide breakdown recovery business.
In more recent years, Quest Motor Group has grown into a successful multi-franchise dealer, still in the hands of the Gozzett family that established it.
By embracing the next era of automotive retail, Quest Motor Group said it can now make possible every aspect of the buying journey online, from providing a guaranteed part-exchange valuation, to finance application and instant credit decisions – all fully compliant under the FCA’s Consumer Credit directive.
MORE: New innovations mark motor group’s 20 years in business
MORE: Cap HPI analysts brief Bank of England on UK car market
MORE: ‘More excitement than nervousness for car buyers’