Amazon SELLS purchases — not just eyeballs

[Todd Caputo]

Amazon sells purchases — not just eyeballs, phone calls, and form fills.

If Amazon can show that their model delivers sales-ready customers, that’s a far superior ROI for dealers.

For years sup par dealer websites and 3rd-party marketplaces have sold us impressions, VDP views, and lead forms.
Carvana flipped the script by proving something bigger:

Consumers will pay MORE for a frictionless, transparent experience so they do not have to walk into a car dealership.
Everyone in the car business thought Carvana wouldn’t make it.

They were wrong.

Now comes Amazon — not to dabble, but to scale what Carvana started:
• Upfront, transparent pricing
• Online financing
• No back-and-forth games
• 3-day return policy
• Buy online, pick up at the dealership
• Used and CPO inventory — starting in LA, coming to your town in the near future.

It’s what many customers have wanted for years.

The difference?
Amazon has the TRUST, the TRAFFIC, the TECH, and the TIMING to pull it off at scale.
Most dealers still make car buying way harder than it has to be.
Amazon won’t.

Every ounce of FRICTION in your process is a point of VULNERABILITY now more than ever.
The disruptors are HERE again —

Dealers: This isn’t the time to panic.

It’s the time to audit your processes, tighten up your reconditioning and merchandising game, and rethink your entire digital-to-physical HANDOFF.
Want to stay relevant?

Start delivering a Carvana/Amazon-like experience — before they eat your lunch.

*imported from fb

 

[Jeff Kershner]

 

[joe.pistell]

Start delivering a Carvana/Amazon-like experience — before they eat your lunch.

# of Leads as a KPI is dead:


Carvana sells 50,000 cars per month, up +40% YoY. Website traffic is unchanged.

From Carvana's Quarterly conference all to investors:

Q4 2023:

• Average calls per sale down ~40% YoY <--wait for it!
• Average sales per customer advocate doubled YoY <--F*ck leads
• Each support rep handled 2x the sales with fewer customer calls <--F*ck leads
• Call duration down ~20% YoY <--F*ck leads

Q4 2024:

• Average calls per sale down ~20% YoY <--F*ck leads
• AI-powered chats with ZERO human assistance has nearly tripled over the past two years <--F*ck leads

Q2 2025:

• 18% more customers complete transactions without any human support vs prior year
• Customers who do call spend 25% less time on calls <--F*ck leads
• Sales per customer advocate up 23% YoY <--F*ck leads

 

[Zack_AF]

You better be careful, Uncle Joe! That kind of thought crime will land you in retraining.

Leads are the only metric that matter. Leads are the only metric that matter. Customers love lead forms.

 

[willandre]

# of Leads as a KPI is dead:
View attachment 9590

Carvana sells 50,000 cars per month, up +40% YoY. Website traffic is unchanged.

From Carvana's Quarterly conference all to investors:

Q4 2023:

• Average calls per sale down ~40% YoY <--wait for it!
• Average sales per customer advocate doubled YoY <--F*ck leads
• Each support rep handled 2x the sales with fewer customer calls <--F*ck leads
• Call duration down ~20% YoY <--F*ck leads

Q4 2024:

• Average calls per sale down ~20% YoY <--F*ck leads
• AI-powered chats with ZERO human assistance has nearly tripled over the past two years <--F*ck leads

Q2 2025:

• 18% more customers complete transactions without any human support vs prior year
• Customers who do call spend 25% less time on calls <--F*ck leads
• Sales per customer advocate up 23% YoY <--F*ck leads

So this is an efficiency story?

 

[joe.pistell]

So this is an efficiency story?

Yess sir.

It's the core of my mission.

Merchandizing - Someone is Launching a new Service | Joe Pistell
​

AutoMagic Labs
"Less Leads, More Turns"

Everyone I talk to recoils when I say "I want to build stuff that causes less leads". It's a delightful confirmation that I'm headed in the right direction.

Internet Car Shopping Sucks.​

It's why DR failed. How do you improve it?

Shopping is a task, shoppers have a job to do.​

Deeply know what your shoppers need to accomplish and look at everything you do through this lens.

It's simple. Industry wide, our websites suck.

 

[willandre]

Makes sense. Now how do we convince the Certified Provider Mafia™️ that 4 CTAs on a VDP is actually hurting their conversion?

 

[DjSec]

If you take what Todd said and combine it with what Uncle Joe said:

• Carvana (and soon Amazon) are winning because they’ve removed almost all friction from the car buying process.
• They’ve eliminated most “traditional” lead funnels and all the back-and-forth games.
• Their entire model is built on speed, transparency, convenience, and trust.

They’ve moved beyond chasing names and numbers, and instead built a process where the transaction is the lead.

So how can a dealership realistically compete?​

1. Stop thinking “website = brochure.”
   Your site should be a transaction engine. If you can’t take deposits, complete financing, or reserve vehicles fully online, you’re already behind.
2. Remove the friction points Amazon/Carvana are eliminating.
   • Transparent, no-surprise pricing
   • Instant trade-in valuations
   • No “let me talk to my manager” games
   • Financing approval in minutes
   • Clear pickup or delivery options
3. Treat your reputation like your life depends on it.
   Amazon wins on trust because their reviews are everywhere. You need to dominate Google reviews, video testimonials, and local social media.
4. Shorten the digital-to-physical handoff to seconds.
   If someone starts online, they should be driving away within an hour of arriving.
5. Make after-sale service part of the sale.
   You can’t out-scale Amazon’s platform, but you can out-service them when it comes to maintenance, relationships, and keeping customers for life.

Dealers can’t win by out-Carvanaing Carvana or out-Amazoning Amazon!

The play is to meet customers and build a truested lasting relationship with them or go extinct.

 

[DjSec]

Makes sense. Now how do we convince the Certified Provider Mafia™️ that 4 CTAs on a VDP is actually hurting their conversion?

Dealers can’t keep waiting for the manufacturers to save them, they won’t!

OEMs don’t care if it’s you selling the car or Amazon.

The stores that survive will be the ones that stop playing games and take control of their own digital presence. If your OEM site is locked down, launch a second site you control 100%, optimized for speed, transparency, and conversion.

Adapt now, or watch the dealers who do eat your lunch.