With the exception of funeral services and stylish clothing, practically anything can be purchased at your local Walmart. Well, that list now includes automobiles. North America’s largest retailer is edging is way into automotive sales with the help of the nation’s largest new-car dealership franchise, AutoNation.
Launching in April, Walmart’s CarSaver program will make it the perfect middleman for impulse car buyers and local dealerships. CarSaver is designed to allow shoppers to browse, select, finance, and insure a vehicle through its website or at kiosks positioned in outside of the nail salons and vision centers of twenty-five Walmart Supercenters.
At launch, 16 AutoNation stores in Phoenix, Houston, and Dallas will be participating, said AutoNation Chief Marketing Officer Marc Cannon. All of the dealerships are within 15 miles of a Walmart CarSaver kiosk.
“The right location is very valuable. You want to make sure it’s convenient for your customers,” Cannon told Automotive News. “It’s not just the sale. We want to keep them as a customer and continue to develop the service part of our business.”
The kiosks will also be available in Oklahoma City Supercenters, however, those will be unaffiliated with AutoNation.
Walmart and CarSaver, backed by twenty dealerships, launched a trial version of the program in Florida in April 2016. The vast majority of scheduled appointments — 80 percent — resulted in a sale and, on average, customers saved over $3,000 off the sticker price. CarSaver’s founders, Sean Wolfington and Chad Collier, claim the program’s fixed pricing, no-pressure, no-haggle policy is what makes it so successful.
“Before I sold my dealerships, I noticed that the leads we bought were also sold to 10 to 15 other dealers, and this hurt our conversion rate and the customer experience because consumers were bombarded by multiple dealers’ emails and calls,” Collier said. “That is also why we deliver appointments rather than leads.”
Typically, CarSaver receives a $350 fee from dealers every time a sale is made using its appointments. Depending on state law, there could be also subscription fee for the service. The program is highly reminiscent of Costco’s automotive buying services, which was a program Wolfington oversaw during his time managing dealerships. “I was impressed with Costco’s program and how much easier it was for the dealership because consumers trusted Costco and appreciated the haggle-free pricing and hassle-free experience,” he said.
Wolfington claims that Costco Auto sells an average of 1,000 new vehicles a year per for every Costco outlet. The Walmart initiative anticipates similar numbers as it expands the platform into more of its 3,500 Supercenters.
[Image: Walmart]
Ask about our free Hoverround lift attached to the trailer hitch!
Cheap used cars would be more realistic than new car. Have you noticed the type of people who frequent Walmart?
They have their own website with lots of pictures. It’s quite popular!
“Have you noticed the type of people who frequent Walmart?”
And what were *you* doing there to notice same?
I shop there all the time, my home away from home. Even tires and oil changes.
I hadn’t noticed.
Hey!
I resemble that remark!
I buy all our packaged and canned grocery items at WM (not fresh stuff though).
They’re a ruthless competitor.
And if you go before 9am or after 8pm the place is pretty much devoid of annoying fellow humans.
“if you go before 9am or after 8pm”
Try going after midnight to one that isn’t in the “nice”* part of town. The humans are replaced by trolls… don’t take my word for it, go find out for yourself.
* No racial connotations implied nor intended. To anyone who may have read that into my comment: punch yourself in the face.
Every “bad” part of town I’ve been in is usually pretty diverse racially, or at least, it reflects the racial makeup of the area pretty well. So that’s good, I guess?
Yup. “Bad” is equal opportunity!
But seriously… go to any one of them late at night. If you’ve never done that before, it will, uh, make an impression.
A friend of mine from my area – Central Iowa – went to help with a “reset” at the store in north Omaha. He told me that at night they were advised not to leave the store alone due to the high crime risk in that area. He told me it was not unusual for police vehicles to be outside the store as further evidence of that “fact”. Not sure all areas would have the same issue, but JimC2 has a good point.
North Omaha is basically a war zone at all hours of the day.
So where would one take her Walmart-purchased car for its new airbag? The local Auto Nation store?
Make some Walmart super centers into auto repair stations as well. Daewoo used Goodyear as their repair centers when they began.
I’ve been busier than a pair of jumper cables in a WalMart parking lot.
That’s a good one.
LOL I just jump-started a guy’s old Blazer in the local WM lot today. He had it hooked up to a new Nissan sedan but not enough juice to spin it over.
My pickup seemed to be the right stuff.
Considering I wouldn’t trust their service centers I most certainly would not trust a Wal Mart car.
-An ex Wal-Mart employee.
But I am sure they would staff them with ASE certified technicians if this were to happen.
If it’s like the Costco model (which per the article it seems to be) WM is just a place that hooks you up with a “participating dealer”.
There won’t be a supply of used Pontiacs forever, so Wal-Mart has got to act while they can.
No Pontiacs, but there will be a supply of Chebbies for the foreseeable future.
Finally I can get a car at the same place I buy movies and Doritos.
As an Oklahoma City / Edmond resident, I’ll be watching for this. We don’t have Costco here to compete (although there is a Costco in Tulsa, I think), so Walmart is reaching an untapped market.
Will Wal-Mart offer Book by Cadillac at a massive discount in approx 14 months?
Oh, great, now people will start trying to pay for their cars at Wal-Mart with EBT cards. Well, that solves the problem of what to do with the still leftover 200s and Darts.
Don’t leave out the ten year old Impalas and LeSabres, along with the fifteen year old Explorers.
But what WalMart customers want to know is can you trade in your hooptie on a newer ride? And, will they get top dollar on the old one.