The year that followed Gettacar partnering with the Danis Auto independent dealership got the wheels turning for founder and chief executive Yossi Levi and team.

Gettacar, which launched in 2018 as an ecommerce-only online car-buying platform, “transformed” the Philadelphia store in 2020, supplying it with inventory and also utilizing its reconditioning capabilities, Levi said.

What resulted was a 52% increase in sales for Danis Auto between 2020 and 2021.

That growth spurred an idea for Levi: What if Gettacar scaled this model, buying independent dealerships and repeating that process?

That’s where the company, which has pivoted to an “omnichannel-first” model, finds itself today.

In addition to Danis Auto and its two locations (which is where Levi came from before starting Gettacar), the company has deals to purchase four independent dealerships, acquisitions that are expected to close in coming months.

“We buy these traditional dealerships, we empower them to sell online or in store, along with enhancing their experience, bringing more inventory, bringing a better suite of just internal tools and processes,” Levi said. “And that way, we grow the business, we improve the customer experience and we scale.”

To help the company scale, Gettacar has hired its first-ever chief operating officer: John Foley, who was set to depart from his role as COO at CarLotz this month.

Levi lauded Foley’s skillset in the scaling department, as he helped CarLotz grow from two hubs to nearly two dozen in his time with the company.

“He knows how to build teams, he knows how to build sourcing channels and we knew that it was the right fit from a values perspective and a competency perspective, he was the right fit for the company,” Levi said.

The four stores that Gettacar is purchasing are all on the East Coast, as Levi says the company currently is “very regionally focused, with aspirations to be national.”

As it scales, Gettacar is looking for high-level independent dealerships that have been operating more than seven years, score high on customer reviews, situated in ideal locales and “align on values and customer base,” he said.

So, why buy independents, in particular, versus setting up shop as a third-party provider or buying franchise dealerships?

“We’re doing the hard work here, where No. 1 we’ve built very, very, very sophisticated infrastructure. To build a reconditioning center and logistics operation, there’s only a handful of independent auto retailers in the country that have done that. Not many people have these big inspection centers and what not, that can do this at scale and do it very efficiently and profitably. That’s the first reason,” Levi said.

“The second reason is, we have the progressive ecommerce DNA in our blood. That’s what we started as … that’s what led us to doing this,” Levi said. “And you couple that with the fact that these independents are typically overlooked. And when you find good independents, you have the creative freedom.

“I like to (say), we don’t have the franchise shackles. We’re a startup, we’re fast growth, we want to come in and we want to bring our experience with our facade. And you just can’t do that on the franchise side,” he said. “That’s the really exciting part for us here … we come from this world. We’ve done this and now we’re just accelerating our growth by making acquisitions and growing inorganically, as well.”

Yossi said the company found that the most efficient and effective way to scale was through acquisitions of independent dealers. Gettacar also determined the best approach was to be omnichannel rather than strictly ecommerce.

It makes sense considering that “you have marketing expenses at an all-time high, CPMs are super high, and you realize that you have these undermanaged assets that you can come in and really make an impact, especially because we’ve built a very, very strong infrastructure over the last several years,” Levi said.

As far as next steps, Gettacar has its attention on finalizing its transactions and moving forward from there.

“We’re laser-focused on closing our four acquisitions and focusing on execution, period. Nothing fancy. Let’s acquire this asset and have it produce a better customer experience and sell more cars more profitably after acquisition. It’s really that simple,” Levi said. “We’re just not looking to do anything too fancy right now. Rather, just execute. 

“And then in addition to that, of course, bringing John on board, helps us really add horsepower to the operational side of our business. And scale faster. We’re a well-capitalized business in obviously a strong used-car market, and we want to move faster,” he said.

“We know we have a very unique playbook. We’re first to market. We have an experienced team … we have a duty to move as quick as possible and prove out that we can digitally transform these traditional dealers and bring a better customer experience and grow sales along the way.”