Definition
Digital retailing is the set of online tools that let a car shopper complete parts of a purchase on a dealer’s website, such as estimating payments, valuing a trade-in, applying for credit and placing a deposit. The goal is for the shopper to finish the deal online or in the store without starting over.
Pasch Group Dealer Glossary
What it means for a dealership
Digital retailing tools range from single steps, such as a payment calculator or trade-in tool, to full platforms that carry a shopper from price to paperwork. Many automakers run their own digital retailing programs, and some have required dealers to remove tools from vendors outside those programs.
So far the tools have not moved most car sales fully online, so the online and in-store steps have to connect. The tools work best when the deal a shopper starts online carries into the CRM and the showroom, so nobody has to repeat their trade details or payment terms at the desk.
Pasch Group’s CTA research found that shorter workflows turn more clicks into leads, and that lighter tools for single questions, such as payments or trade value, can add leads on their own. Measure each step separately, so you can see where shoppers stop and which tools produce leads your CRM can act on.
In practice
A shopper builds a deal for a new crossover on a dealer’s website: she picks a lease term, values her trade, gets a credit decision and places a deposit. When she arrives, the salesperson pulls up the same deal in the CRM and they go straight to the test drive and paperwork.
Questions
Is digital retailing the same as a payment calculator?
A payment calculator is one digital retailing tool. Full digital retailing platforms connect several steps, such as payments, trade-in, credit, protection products and a deposit, so the shopper’s work carries from one step to the next and into the store.
Updated October 11, 2026