Who will call the shots?

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As digital retailing moves to the forefront, some dealers worry that automakers will dictate their paths to the future.

Automakers have historically required dealers to use specific vendors for various tasks. John Malishenko, director of operations for Germain Motor Co., a dealership group with stores in Ohio, Michigan and Florida, questions whether automakers trust dealers' ability to adapt to digital retailing.

"In the dealer body, there's this lowest common denominator of guys that are just still doing business the way they've always done it," he said. "And then there's guys like us that are a bit more innovative, more digital. We've embraced the changes in the market."

Malishenko predicts that more automakers will mandate a centralized digital system.

"But that lowest common denominator solution is antiquated for me. It's actually limiting for me because I want to move beyond that. I want to go deeper," Malishenko said. "I want to do more, but you have this standardized, centralized solution."

Kevin Frye, e-commerce director for Jeff Wyler Automotive Family — with dealerships in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana — agrees. With the number of franchises Jeff Wyler has, the stores could end up using eight to nine digital retailing platforms to fulfill automaker mandates.

"Our brand is Jeff Wyler, and we want to have one uniform experience for online digital retailing," Frye said.

Still, Frye added, automakers realize that many dealers are reluctant to change, and one of automakers' priorities is protecting their brand image, value and position in the market.

For example, if one automaker mandates a digital retailing platform and another doesn't, and the dealers that don't have a mandate aren't pursuing digital retailing strategies on their own, the second automaker may be at a disadvantage. "The earliest example of something similar to this would be the early days with [General Motors] mandating websites" with a specific vendor, said Frye. Some dealers, he added, "were too stubborn to believe in the Internet and to get websites, so they had to protect their brand."