A new Business Continuity Resource Hub from Cox Automotive’s Dealer Software Solutions brands, Dealer.com, Dealertrack DMS, VinSolutions and Xtime, is geared toward dealers looking to resolve current challenges and reimagine their business for the future in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cox Automotive experts deliver the continuously updated series of no-cost webinars, which focus on building dealership resilience related to the crisis and what the company says is “the industry’s inevitable recovery.”

The hub launched today.

The company said the digital educational assets focus on helping dealers maintain business continuity, and the assets focus on three areas of auto retail: marketing to the evolving consumer, achieving peak dealership performance and capturing the opportunity presented by fixed ops.

Industry subject matter experts and dealership leaders will provide real-world tactical and applicable advice and insight via Essential Webinars addressing methods to adjust dealership practices and processes to the new environment, and they will also offer insight on how to prepare for the future.

Cox Automotive said it will update webinar topics frequently to keep pace with evolving economic and market conditions.

The topics currently include

— Digital retailing: End-to-end basics

— Connecting with remote shoppers

— Deal making in today’s digital world

— Fixed ops/service best practices for business continuity in any environment

Why is Cox Automotive unveiling the Business Continuity Resource Hub? The company says that because of COVID-19, the process of buying and owning a car is changing.

According to Cox Automotive research, because of COVID-19 concerns, more than 50% of consumers are less likely to visit a dealership at this time.

“The resulting signal from dealers is clear: Help us go digital,” Cox Automotive said.

The company says dealer adoption of its digital retailing solutions has increased 189% month over month from February to March. 

Cox Automotive also said it believes the current decline in auto sales is 100% COVID-19 related.

But the company added that as concerns about the pandemic ease, sales will rebound.

“With that in mind, the Cox Automotive Dealer Software Solutions team is responding to dealers who want to start building their resiliency now to prepare for the inevitable recovery,” the company said.

The webinar series resource hub seeks to provide dealers with foundational Cox Automotive partnership and support “today, and into our industry’s future,” the company said.

Who is conducting the webinars? Cox Automotive’s Dealer Software Solutions senior vice president Lori Wittman and a team of Cox Automotive experts, with input from a panel of dealership leaders across the country “grappling with pandemic and the evolution to the new normal,” Cox Automotive said.

Cox Automotive’s Dealer Software Solutions Business Continuity Resources are available at www.coxautowebinars.com or on Cox Automotive’s COVID-19 resource page at: www.coxautoinc.com/covid-19.