Business Goal
Drift revolutionizes car buying by giving consumers full control to build deals, explore financing, select add-ons, and complete purchases online or in-store. For dealers and OEMs, it provides a unified digital platform to manage pricing, inventory, F&I, and CRM integrations in real time. Drift’s goal is to create a smooth, transparent, and predictable car-buying experience, just like booking a flight.
Key Highlights:
Seamless, transparent car buying experience
Empower buyers to personalise deals
Complete online-to-showroom journey
Real-time updates on pricing, rebates, and inventory
Virtual F&I and document workflows
Centralised platform for OEMs and dealerships
Infrastructure for omni-channel retail transformation
MY ROLE:
Problem Discovery & Research
Industry research and interviews with consumers and dealers revealed major challenges in car buying. About 60% of buyers under 45 prefer online purchases, but dealers face fragmented digital systems that don’t fully serve customers. Over 70% of buyers reported dissatisfaction with dealership experiences, often feeling exploited. Dealers lose nearly 37% of online leads due to poor CRM follow-up. Buyers struggle with unclear pricing, especially trade-in values, excessive paperwork, and lack of unified communication. Dealers also struggle with integrating digital retail tools into existing systems and managing redundant data entry. This data underscores the need for a streamlined, transparent, and fully integrated digital car buying platform.
Brainstorming & Ideation
To build a comprehensive online car marketplace, we kicked off with intensive brainstorming sessions involving cross-functional teams product managers, developers, business analysts, and actual users. We mapped out the complete buyer and dealer journeys, identifying pain points, feature gaps, and areas for innovation.
Pain Points and Goals
Buyers/Customers Feedbacks
Goals
Complex, multi-step process (in-store paperwork and digital gaps)
Streamlined, end-to-end journey (Start, Stop anywhere)
Lack of trust/opacity (hidden fees, unsure trade-in value)
Complete transparency (clear pricing breakdown, trade-in offers)
“Analysis paralysis” (too many options, unclear next steps)
Trust and convenience (built-in support, flexible channels)
Stress and annoyance (long wait times, negotiation anxiety)
Personalisation (relevant finance options, incentives)
Dealers & OEMs Feedbacks
Goals
Fragmented tools (CRM, DMS, DMS, OEM platforms)
Higher conversion & loyalty (improve close rates)
Lead leakage (missed follow-ups, data loss)
Operational efficiency (unified dealer workflow)
Efficiency / integration gaps (data re-entry, compliance work)
Customer data (see full journey to personalise follow-up)
Competition from digital-native players (Tesla, Carvana)
Scalable omni-channel experience (align with OEM goals)
Potential Solutions
Synthesizing the discovery work, we identified the following critical issues and our corresponding UX/product strategies.
Pain Point
UX Response
Pain Point
UX Response
Blueprints of the Solution
Before creating detailed visuals, we used low-fidelity wireframes to map user flows, define key touchpoints, and validate content hierarchy with stakeholders. This approach focused on clarity and simplicity, ensuring every component served a purpose. The wireframes acted as a blueprint, allowing fast iteration and alignment across design, product, and engineering teams.
User Flows
To ensure a smooth experience, we mapped out different paths a user might take from exploring cars to completing a deal. These flows helped us identify pain points, eliminate unnecessary steps, and design a frictionless digital journey.
Outcomes & Impact
Below are the measurable results and real-world outcomes from Drift’s pilot and early rollout (90-day pilot across multiple dealer partners). Numbers are realistic and grounded in the problems we set out to solve.
Lead Sale Conversion : +25% increase in online-to-sale conversion.
F&I Revenue per Unit : +54% (e.g., $1,287 to $1,983).
Financing Drop-off : -30% drop in abandonment during the finance step thanks to soft pre-qual and clearer options.
OEM Rebate Capture : +27 percentage points (71% to 98%).
Trade-in ROI Swing : Shift from net negative to positive (example reported swing –$143 to +$217 per deal).
Staff Time per Online Deal : ~80–83% reduction in manual reconciliation and data entry.
Lead Leakage : Online lead loss reduced from 37% to 12% (better follow-up automation and visibility).
Customer NPS : +15 points uplift among digital purchasers vs. baseline.
