Upstart Auto Retail has exciting updates to announce in Q4 2022 and even more on the way. In line with our vision to create the world’s best car-buying experience for both dealers and consumers, Upstart Auto Retail’s product teams are working diligently to create new features, update workflows, and deliver the best digital retail experience to our customers.
Below are the updates that will be highlighted in this article:
What’s landed recently:
- An improved desking experience
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Upstart Auto Retail | Build & Price
- Honda selects Upstart Auto Retail as a digital retailing partner
What’s coming soon:
What’s landed recently
An improved desking experience
Upstart Auto Retail is proud to share an updated and improved desking experience. There are many different titles for people in dealerships who use Upstart Auto Retail’s desking experience—desking manager, finance manager, F&I manager, and sales manager, to name a few—but for this section of the article, we’ll simply call these users ‘manager.’
This update delivers many quality of life improvements, but there are three specific areas we’d like to focus on:
Present up to five payment options to car buyers
Well-qualified car buyers walk into your dealership every day. These customers have many choices for who they’d like to work with when financing a car. For these customers, and even for others that may not be prime buyers, a maximum of three options presented by the dealer may not be enough.
The Upstart Auto Retail desking tool update within the Manager Dashboard gives managers the option to send up to five finance offers. Of course, there are times when the offers available to the car buyer aren’t in the best interest of the dealer. In these cases, managers have the option to not present any offers at all.
Desk multiple deals at the same time
Managers are busy, often with lines or queues of sales consultants outside of their office. We checked in with our customers and a request we kept hearing was, “I’d really like to be able to desk multiple deals at once.”
You asked. We’ve delivered.
In Upstart Auto Retail Manager Portal, users now have the ability to desk multiple deals at the same time with up to five offers per deal.
Push car buyer information to the CRM at any time
Pushing deal information to your CRM shouldn’t be limited to only once an offer is selected. With this new update in Upstart Auto Retail, managers can push deal information to their integrated CRM at any point in the desking process.
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Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
Upstart Auto Retail now requires multi-factor authentication (MFA) on specific systems that access personally identifiable information (PII). Both Upstart Auto Retail In Store (iOS application) and Upstart Auto Retail Manager Portal will be protected with MFA and require authorized dealership staff to authenticate with email address, password, and a security code received via email before system access is approved.
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Upstart Auto Retail Build & Price
Upstart Auto Retail Build & Price is now available for all dealers currently running on the most recent version of Upstart Auto Retail Online. Built on top of Upstart’s digital retail platform, Build & Price enables car buyers to build deals online for vehicles that are not in stock or even in transit—directly from the dealer’s website. This keeps car buyers engaged, capturing leads even when specific inventory isn’t available.
For more information, check out our blog ‘Introducing Upstart Auto Retail Build & Price’ which walks through what the Build & Price tool is, its benefits, and how to use it.
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Honda Selects Upstart Auto Retail as a Digital Retailing Partner
On October 28th, 2022, Upstart Auto Retail announced our certification as a Honda Digital Solutions (HDS) partner. As an HDS Digital Retailing solution, Upstart Auto Retail is now considered a preferred partner for Honda dealers and customers nationwide. With this partnership, Upstart Auto Retail adds Honda to our growing roster of OEM partners including Kia, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Subaru of America, Toyota, and Volkswagen.
Read more about Upstart’s partnership with Honda here.
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What’s coming soon
Accessories integration with Insignia Group
When people are shopping for cars, they often have specific accessories in mind that match their needs and lifestyle—a roof rack, cargo net, bike rack, and more. Car buyers often add hundreds of dollars worth of accessories to their car after they leave the dealership, buying from suppliers that may not meet the rigorous quality requirements of original equipment manufacturers (OEM). To purchase these accessories, customers have to put the cost of the accessories on a credit card or use cash instead of rolling it into their loan.
Upstart Auto Retail is proud to announce our partnership and integration with Insignia Group, a premier automotive accessories provider. For dealerships already using Insignia, this new integration brings their accessory database directly into Upstart Auto Retail.
This integration is a win-win scenario for both dealers and customers—increasing profitability for Upstart’s dealer partners while giving car buyers an easy way to pay for quality accessories.
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Additional information
We hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into what’s coming soon, as well as the recap of what’s been recently added to Upstart Auto Retail. To learn more about Upstart Auto Retail, please visit the following sites: