Lookers Case Study | AND Digital

Digital transformation in 12 weeks

Making a complex logistical chain simple for customers

AND Digital was tasked with helping to not only accelerate the company’s digital transformation, but also to ensure it was well positioned to meet changing customer needs in a new and challenging environment.

The company's existing third party payment platform was due for renewal 12 weeks from the beginning of the project. This added an important deadline, as well as ensuring that the replacement service was seamlessly integrated seamlessly with those other existing services that comprise a complex logistical chain which includes search, order fulfilment, financing, and delivery.

What we did

Discovery and development

Discovery

We had to move quickly to ensure the project could be completed within the timeline. The first step was to rapidly discover both the fundamental needs of customers and the nature of the company’s existing technology estate.

To do this, we conducted multiple research sessions concurrently with stakeholders from different parts of the business.

This helped us to spotlight:

Legacy technology challenges
The importance of contactless collection to the car market and Lookers

Development

Based on the insights drawn from research sessions, we designed and built a new eCommerce platform: Click & Drive.

This was specifically designed with contactless purchasing in mind. It comprises of 3 steps:

Find
Order
Drive

Acceleration enabled by smart vendor selection

The technology stack behind Click & Drive was selected for two reasons: to enable rapid delivery within the 12 week timeframe, and to ensure it could be easily integrated into Lookers’ technology and team capabilities.

Azure played a fundamental part. We used Azure’s serverless product, Azure Functions, as it allowed us to develop the platform separately from the rest of the Lookers infrastructure, and Blob Storage to store the vast amounts of data that are part and parcel of the car selling and purchasing process.

We also used:

React as a front end library to create an interface that is lightweight yet dynamic
Cap HPI to provide customers with the necessary intelligence and insight on the cars Lookers have available
Stripe for simple, rapid payment
Codeweavers for finance because of its reputation in powering technological innovation in the car industry

Key outcomes

Digital transformation is business transformation

During lockdown

The impact of AND’s work was significant. Despite all dealerships being closed in the first quarter of 2021, Lookers - improbably - saw significant revenue growth.

Post-lockdown

Although the transformation of Lookers had a big impact during periods of lockdown, this has only continued as dealerships reopened.

For example, the company saw a reduced ‘in person’ sales cycle with negotiation times decreasing from an average of 4 hours to 1 hour; this was because customers were able to research through the new platform.

The platform is now also the foundation of Lookers analytics capabilities, and has enabled a truly data-driven strategy. The data that is created by interactions with Click & Drive - which is easily stored in Azure Blob Storage - allows the organisation to build customer profiles, and forecast more effectively than ever before.

Supercharging online growth during lockdown for one of the UK’s leading car dealership chains

Lookers

Digital transformation in 12 weeks

What we did

Discovery

Development

Acceleration enabled by smart vendor selection

Digital transformation is business transformation

During lockdown

Post-lockdown

See our impact elsewhere

Talk to us.

Supercharging online growth during lockdown for one of the UK’s leading car dealership chains

Lookers

Digital transformation in 12 weeks

What we did

Discovery

Development

Acceleration enabled by smart vendor selection

Digital transformation is business transformation

During lockdown

Post-lockdown

See our impact elsewhere

Prince's Trust

Ordo

N Brown

Talk to us.