Dive Brief:
- Amazon Autos, the online car buying marketplace of e-commerce giant Amazon, is adding used and certified pre-owned (CPO) Hyundai Motor America vehicles to its platform, the company announced on Monday.
- Customers will have the option to filter results on Amazon Autos to show either new or used Hyundai vehicles. But all vehicles offered for sale shown will be limited to a 75-mile radius of their location.
- In addition, all used vehicles sold via Amazon Autos will come with a three-day, 300-mile return policy and a minimum 30-day, 1,000-mile limited warranty. The first online sales of used Hyundai models will be in the Los Angles area, with plans to expand to other U.S. cities in the coming months.
Dive Insight:
Amazon launched the Amazon Autos online marketplace last December in partnership with Hyundai, which allows customers to purchase a new vehicle online and arrange for pickup at a local dealer of their choice. But the online store previously did not offer used vehicles.
The addition of used and CPO vehicles to the Amazon Autos marketplace also allows dealers to sell their non-Hyundai inventory to expand customer buying choices, including vehicles from Ford, Toyota, Nissan, BMW and other brands.
“We think of Amazon Autos as a marketplace where dealers can reach more customers,” said Fan Jin, director and GM of Amazon Autos, in an interview with Automotive Dive. “We have heard time and again from our customers that it [car buying] is a difficult, complex purchase for them.”
Jin said that since the launch of the Amazon Autos marketplace last December, customers have asked for more choices, including purchasing vehicles online from other OEMs.
“The number one ask from all customers is ‘can we see more selection?’” said Jin. “Can we see more other brands of cars, other vehicle conditions, new, used, certified, pre-owned cars.”
In addition to offering more buying choices for Hyundai customers, many car shoppers today are seeking a digital car buying experience to avoid high-pressure sales tactics and pressure of buying a car from a dealer in-person. Amazon Autos says its marketplace offers car buyers a seamless e-commerce experience with transparent pricing and no hidden fees.
The online marketplace, for example, provides comprehensive information for each listing, including vehicle history reports. Amazon Autos also offers seamless integration with Hyundai dealerships so that customers can more easily arrange for in-person test drives to help address some of the reservations they may have of purchasing a used vehicle online.
Amazon Autos is offering what it calls “acceptance test drives,” allowing prospective buyers to test drive a vehicle before they sign the final purchase paperwork at a Hyundai dealer.
“We have the best of both worlds,” said Jin. “We're providing dealers with millions of shoppers, local customers, who will see their [Amazon Autos] store, and we're giving those customers really transparent access and ease of access to what's available.”
Amazon Autos also vets Hyundai dealers to ensure customers don't have a bad car buying experience.
“It takes a lot of work as we onboard each dealer to configure them for e-commerce,” Jin said.
In addition, Hyundai dealers are also required to adhere to Amazon Autos’ own requirements for selling vehicles online in order to ensure customer satisfaction and a smooth buying experience. Shoppers can also read reviews of dealers before deciding on a pickup location.
“We look for dealers with high reputation scores, and we hold them to very high standards in how they sell, how they treat their customers,” said Jin. “We want to give customers peace of mind when they're buying a used car through Amazon that they'll be taken care of.”
Jin did not disclose how many Hyundai vehicles were sold via Amazon Autos since its launch in January, but confirmed that the marketplace for new vehicles is now available in 130 U.S. cities, including New York, Boston, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and other major metropolitan areas. Jin did say, however, that the Amazon Autos car buying experience has received high marks from customers.
“The customer feedback has been off the charts good,” said Jin. “Customers who transact, who buy their car through Amazon, give customer satisfaction scores, [Net Promoter Scores] that are many times over what the industry average is.”
According to a Cox Automotive forecast released in February, a seamless, omnichannel car buying experience combining online and at-dealership activities is essential for succeeding in today’s automotive retail market. Cox Automotive also reported earlier this year that car buying satisfaction reached a record high in 2024, driven by more transparent vehicle pricing, as well as the availability of improved digital tools for consumers, which Amazon Autos is providing.
"We're excited to be an early participant in Amazon Autos' expansion," said Weslie Metcalf, managing partner of Premier Hyundai in Moreno Valley, California, in the release. “We believe this collaboration has the potential to help us reach more customers and enhance our online sales process.”
Jin added that many U.S. Hyundai dealers have expressed strong interest in being added to the platform, so much so that Amazon Autos has had its own challenges in onboarding new dealer sales partners. But according to Jin, the company is working to address it.
“The second positive for us here is that we have a lot of dealer interest, and really our bottleneck is internal, where we have a bottleneck of onboarding dealers,” said Jin. “So we're very bullish on the program.”
