Carvana gets a $4k Premium at their New Stellantis Stores

Recent industry reports confirmed what many in automotive retail feared: Carvana quietly acquired multiple Stellantis franchise stores across the country. At one Arizona Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram location, they scaled monthly volume from 30–50 units to over 700 new vehicles a month by shifting to an online-first checkout model.

Surprising to some, fresh data reveals that consumers are willingly paying up to $4,000 more for the exact same vehicle on digital-first platforms like Carvana compared to a traditional lot.

Think about what that means for your showroom: car buyers are actively choosing to spend thousands more to bypass the four-hour showroom grind, contentious trade-in appraisals, and tense back-and-forth negotiations.

According to CDK Global's Friction Points Study, while 84% of dealers have integrated some form of online digital retailing, only 30% actively include it in their showroom experience. If your online retail strategy begins and ends with fragmented widgets and lead-capture forms ("Click for ePrice," "Confirm Availability") that force customers to start over from scratch when they arrive in the showroom, a substantial segment of consumers look at you like a Blockbuster video and Carvana is poaching your territory.  You are therefore letting Carvana poach into your territory, because Casa Grande, AZ certainly did not 10x its population in a year.

Here is why today’s buyers are choosing digital channels, what it means for your showroom velocity, and how the WebBuy Omni Sales Platform gives your desk the tools to beat disruptors on speed, gross, and customer experience.

1. Why Friction Is Costing Dealerships Real Gross

Buyers are proving that convenience can outweigh price. When they pay thousands over market to skip the showroom, the message is clear: friction is more expensive than discounting.  When a customer spends hours structuring terms online, walks through your showroom doors, and is handed a blank four-square on a legal pad, trust evaporates and desk velocity stalls. 

Consider where traditional deals stall and burn front-end gross:

• The Contentious Trade-In: Nearly half of all car shoppers cite trade-in negotiations as the single most stressful part of the transaction. When a customer feels blind-sided by an appraisal, trust evaporates, negotiations drag out, and the look-to-book ratio plummets.
• The Disconnected "First Pencil": A customer spends hours building an unrealistic deal on a third-party widget. When they arrive at the store, the desk manager has to "unwind" the deal because taxes, local fees, OEM rebates, or lender tiers weren't calculated accurately.
• Wasted Floor Velocity: Desk managers spend valuable hours re-keying basic data into the CRM and DMS instead of closing tough deals, ballooning floorplan carrying costs and slowing down turn-rate.

Carvana built its model around removing these pain points. Now, as it buys new-car franchises, that playbook is moving directly into local dealer markets.

2. Countering Disruptors with WebBuy’s Omni Sales Platform

You don’t have to sit back and watch disruptors conquer your local market. Traditional dealerships have distinct advantages that Carvana can never match: physical service hubs, immediate local inventory, community roots, and operational flexibility.

To win, dealers must replace fragmented lead-capture buttons with a true self-checkout lane that bridges the gap between your digital showroom and physical sales desk. That is precisely why WebBuy was built—by dealers, for dealers.

TRADITIONAL BOTTLENECK WEBBUY OMNICHANNEL ENGINE

Turn Trade Contention into Margin with CarValuator

Instead of a mystery number that triggers an immediate argument at the desk, WebBuy’s CarValuator lets the customer lead their own appraisal using transparent criteria powered by real-time J.D. Power market data. You set the valuation rules and guardrails, giving the customer a firm, penny-perfect trade-in or instant purchase offer while keeping your used inventory pipeline stocked without auction markups.

Eliminate Payment Surprises with Penny-Perfect Desking

WebBuy doesn’t offer vague estimates. It delivers penny-perfect pricing down to the specific municipality, factoring in complex lender rulesets, OEM incentives, doc fees, and local taxes. When a shopper sees a payment on your VDP, that deal is 100% actionable and ready to contract.

Retain Dealer Autonomy with BidBoard® & NetDesker

Unlike rigid OEM-mandated tools or vendor platforms that hand your financing margin over to third parties, WebBuy’s BidBoard® keeps the dealer in complete control:

• Integrates with 700Credit for soft-pull pre-qualifications and RouteOne or DealerTrack for hard lender approvals.
• Preserves your ability to set reserve rules and rate markups.
• Empowers desk managers via NetDesker to adjust pencils and chat side-by-side with shoppers in real time—whether they are on their couch or sitting in your showroom kiosk.

Seamless Showroom-to-DMS Handoff

No lost customer profiles. When an online buyer walks through your front door, your sales reps pull up the exact transaction state in WebBuy, push the numbers directly to your DMS, execute paperless e-signatures, and get the customer out the door in under an hour.

3. Protect Gross, Double Conversion, and Accelerate Turn-Rate

Moving to an end-to-end digital retail workflow isn't just about matching Carvana's customer convenience—it directly protects your store's bottom line:

• +$600 Increase in Front-End & F&I Gross: Real transaction data shows WebBuy deals generate up to $600 more across combined front-end gross and back-end F&I product income compared to traditional lead-form deals.
• 1/3 The Cost Per Sale: WebBuy consolidates trade-in tools, pre-qualification widgets, and chat apps into one streamlined tech stack, reducing your technology spend to a third of typical multi-vendor platforms.
• 4X Credit Applications & Higher Velocity: Dealerships leveraging WebBuy see 2X more qualified leads, 3X more showroom appointments, and an immediate lift in vehicle turn-rates.

Stop Handing Buyers to Disruptors. Fix Your Funnel Today.

Car buyers have proven they will pay a premium for a smooth, transparent, fast transaction. The only question left is whether they will buy that experience from Carvana or directly from your website.

Before you spend another dollar on paid search or third-party lead generation, eliminate the friction inside your digital funnel.

Schedule a 30-Minute WebBuy Demo →

See how the WebBuy Omni Sales Platform transforms your website and showroom into a high-velocity, high-gross sales machine.