In this transcribed episode of the Used Car Dealer Podcast, Zach talks with Paulo da Silva, who leads the digital commerce business at Cox Automotive, about how transparency, omnichannel experiences, and AI are reshaping the future of digital car buying for both dealers and consumers.
Paulo shares how his background in strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and building direct-to-consumer businesses—including standing up Whirlpool’s DTC operation from the ground up—prepared him to tackle one of automotive retail’s toughest challenges: creating a truly end-to-end, modern buying experience that works online, in-store, and everywhere in between.
The conversation covers the biggest inflection points Paulo has seen over the past 5–10 years, the most common digital-retail mistakes dealers still make, and what it takes to build a single continuous funnel where customers don’t have to repeat themselves. Paulo also dives into how dealers can align process, culture, and technology to unlock real omnichannel execution, what change management looks like inside the store, and how AI will impact both dealership operations and how consumers shop and negotiate.
Whether you’re an independent dealer or a growing franchise group, Paulo’s insights offer practical takeaways on reducing friction, building trust through transparency, modernizing the role of F&I and lender workflows, and adopting digital retail practices that prepare your store for what’s coming next.
Zach: Welcome back to the Used Car Dealer Podcast. Today, I’m excited to welcome Paulo da Silva, who leads the digital commerce business at Cox Automotive, including e-commerce, CRM, marketing automation, and deal structuring. Paulo has been instrumental in helping dealers and national resellers expand their used-car sales footprint by harnessing AI and true end-to-end digital retail capabilities—at a time when average new-car prices are topping $50,000 and many consumers are turning to used.
So Paulo, thanks so much for joining me on the podcast today.
Paulo: It’s a pleasure to be with you, Zach. I look forward to the conversation.
Zach: So Paulo, could you walk us through your journey into automotive retail and digital commerce? What drew you into this space, and how has your background prepared you for the digital retail challenge?
Paulo: Yeah—lots of interesting, funny stories here. The gist of it is, I started my career working mostly in strategy, mergers, and acquisitions. That was kind of the first half of my career.
But I always had this desire to put my hands on the steering wheel and learn more about driving businesses and growing businesses. I made a transition about 14 years ago into leading businesses, and most of the businesses I’ve been running have been digital in nature.
I’ve always been particularly intrigued by these high-ticket categories—where whoever’s buying the product is really taking their time to think through that purchase. Typically, it’s an event—something happens in your life—and you’re making a purchase.
My last role before Cox was at Whirlpool, the appliances company out of southwest Michigan. There, I stood up their direct-to-consumer business from zero, from the ground up—selling large appliances, countertop appliances, and consumables across a whole bunch of different brands. I was doing that, having a ton of fun.
Then Cox Automotive reached out and said, “Hey, we have an intriguing proposal. We want to build a fully automated e-commerce platform for automotive. It’s never been done before—one where a dealer could sell a car without ever having to talk to a consumer at all.”
And being a car guy—someone who’s really passionate about cars as a driver and as a consumer—and loving this space of considered purchases, it felt like a very natural transition for me. It didn’t take very long for me to say yes to the challenge.
I’ve been with Cox now for a few years, and in my time here my scope expanded from that original e-commerce mandate to include some of the products you mentioned. I have VinSolutions, our CRM platform. I have our deal-structuring platform called Deal Central. I have our marketing automation platform called AMP.
So I’m leading all these businesses, and I feel like a lot of the work I’ve done up to this point has really prepared me to play a big role in helping dealers navigate this next phase of digital retail.
Zach: Really impressive, Paulo. And at Cox Automotive, like you mentioned, you’ve overseen e-commerce, omnichannel capabilities, and digital commerce platforms. What have been the key inflection points you’ve seen in automotive retail over the past, let’s say, five to ten years?
Paulo: I think if I look at the inflection points, the consistent theme behind them has been this push for more transparency. Transparency went from being a competitive advantage to now being a baseline expectation for consumers.
That’s been driven by consumers’ experiences buying other products online—how easy and uneventful that can be—and consumer reviews creating a lot more visibility into the experience people are having buying cars from dealers. And frankly, regulatory oversight has increased over time.
If I think about the inflection points, there are four principal ones I would point to.
The first is the advent of the internet. I wasn’t around in automotive then, but I’ve heard a lot of stories about the first dealer websites and dealers’ concerns about even just putting prices online. That first step toward visibility and transparency—something that now feels like table stakes—was a big deal.
From there, there was a natural inflection point toward digital retailing, where we started to offer consumers the option to pencil a deal and structure it. There was a lot of concern about people messing with down payments and making assumptions about interest rates—but we eventually overcame that.
COVID, as the third inflection point, forced everyone to be online-ready, whether or not they believed that was best for their business. For many, it was a matter of survival.
And now the last inflection point is what’s happening with AI. That hasn’t fully played out yet, but we have a good sense of how it will unfold over the next few years. Dealers are excited about using AI to be more profitable and more efficient—but sometimes they forget that consumers will also use AI. That presents new challenges as consumers get smarter about the process, profitability, and their options.
Zach: From your vantage point, what are the common digital retail mistakes you see dealers make when they jump into online transactions?
Paulo: The first mistake I see often is not putting their best foot forward—meaning not having strong merchandising and not having complete information on the inventory. Online, that erodes trust and can stall your chances of being successful.
Every VDP should have really good images and videos, vehicle history reports, very clear info about options and packages, and if you’ve done recon, what recon you’ve done. If you have something like a KBB price indicator or a fair-price indicator that helps the consumer understand how well-priced the unit is, include that. Delivery information too—these things make a strong first impression and set you up for a positive relationship with the consumer.
The second mistake is multiple CTAs that create too many doors for the consumer: schedule a test drive, get an online price, talk to our team—the more options you present, the more analysis paralysis you introduce. A best practice is offering one clear path forward, where at every step the consumer can decide whether to continue online or get assistance from someone at the store. One direction of travel—toward a deal.
The last mistake is breaking continuity between the online experience and the in-store experience. In Cox Automotive Research, when we ask consumers what they’re trying to accomplish by doing steps online, 7 in 10 tell us their goal is to save time.
But when we ask dealers whether they honor the steps consumers have done online—or make them repeat—we hear 80%+ say they make them repeat. Sometimes because they think the data is incorrect, they don’t trust it, or they think there’s an opportunity to move the deal in a more favorable direction. There’s tension between what consumers are trying to do and what dealers are trying to do. Creating continuity and a solid starting point in-store is an important step forward—and a mistake you want to correct.
Zach: That resonates with me, coming from a CRM background—customers expect that momentum to carry through when they come in-store. Totally agree.
I want to shift gears to your role at Cox Automotive. Your platforms put you at the intersection of used-car sourcing, trade-ins, digital retailing, and dealer operations. How would you describe your mission in terms of shifting the used-car business for dealers?
Paulo: Where my part of the equation exists in the Cox Automotive ecosystem is the lead-to-sale space—from the moment you get a lead all the way down to a completed transaction.
Our objective is to live at the intersection of dealer objectives and what consumers expect. Dealers want to sell more cars and make more money on every car they sell. Consumers want a simple, fast process that lets them focus on the parts they enjoy—learning about the vehicle, test driving, and feeling like they got a good deal.
So our team sits at that intersection and asks: how do we accomplish all of this together—so it’s not a zero-sum game—where the dealer is profitable and sells a lot of cars, and consumers are happy?
A lot of our energy goes into making the transaction easier and faster. We think about how many clicks it takes to desk a deal, how to streamline trade valuation, and how to streamline the credit application process and the flow into the F&I box. Removing friction makes it faster for everybody and creates a good outcome for both dealer and consumer.
The second part is creating trust through transparency. Deal Central is focused on desking, negotiation, and deal structuring. We’ve created an experience that the consumer and sales associate share—building the deal together while the sales manager or desk manager oversees it, has visibility, and sets the parameters. There’s freedom within a framework.
That helps shift the process from a negotiation where it feels like either I win or the salesperson wins, to a collaboration—“we’re solving a problem together”—and the end result is a deal the consumer feels good about.
The third piece is tying dealer profitability to a better consumer experience. How do we improve experience and, as a consequence, create better profitability outcomes? A lot of that revolves around providing options and alternatives as you structure the deal—alternative vehicles, alternative deal structures—equipping the desk manager to present the right deal, the right payment, the right choice that optimizes profit and experience.
One stat that always resonates: consumers are 4.6x more likely to post on social media about their car-buying experience if they’re satisfied. They’re 3.1x more likely to recommend the dealer to a friend, and 3.7x more likely to make another purchase from the same dealer if they’re satisfied. So for a dealer, driving satisfaction in the first deal creates second-order effects—more opportunities for additional business.
Zach: That’s really interesting data. And from the dealer standpoint, the customer acquisition cost of a friend referral or a social post leading to more visibility and leads is a huge advantage for dealers offering a better experience.
You mentioned a major omnichannel rollout at Cox that allows full vehicle purchases online across branded dealer websites, marketplaces, and in-store. How are you seeing dealers adapt from a process, culture, and technology standpoint?
Paulo: We’ve been hard at work stacking the blocks to get to a full omnichannel experience. Deal Central is at the heart of that, and VinSolutions has had a lot of work done to support that experience as well.
From a process standpoint, every minute you shave out of selling a vehicle is a win for both dealer and consumer. What we’re seeing is that omnichannel creates an incentive for dealers to explore alternative ways of doing business: single point of contact, more empowerment of the salesperson, “freedom within a framework” where you ring-fence what a salesperson can do in penciling but the sales manager still has control. Some dealers are even considering single-price approaches because it simplifies negotiation and deal structuring.
Culturally, there’s a shift toward relinquishing control—within reason—to allow teams to operate confidently within the framework you set. And measuring metrics beyond just sales. Everyone measures cars sold, pace, leads, closing rate—but the leaders are also measuring time to respond, percentage of consumers completing steps online, time to first pencil, and how many pencils it takes to close a deal. Those are indicators of process health and customer experience.
On the technology front, it’s about leveraging holistic, end-to-end platforms that offer flexibility to meet the dealer where they are. I always use the example of a driver’s license: don’t capture it multiple times. Capture it once—maybe at test drive—and have that asset flow through to F&I for compliance and the deal jacket.
Zach: For independent and franchise dealers looking to ramp up their used-car business, which elements of the digital solution should they prioritize—pricing, transparency, trust, online checkout—what are your thoughts?
Paulo: The complexity is how many solutions come into play in variable ops: website, digital retailing, CRM, desking, lender portal, F&I menu, DMS—often treated as separate pieces of the puzzle.
We’re getting to a point where technology needs to bridge it all. I informally call it “cake toppers”—layers that sit on top of the stack to create a more seamless experience for both the team and the consumer.
The biggest frontier we’re really excited about is the bridge between sales and F&I—reducing the time it takes for a consumer to get into the F&I box. Also, investing in technology that’s flexible enough to evolve as you learn and refine your process.
Another priority is consumer data you may not already have. Dealer groups might have many touchpoints, but we can enrich your understanding with what consumers have been doing online, what content they’ve consumed, what deals they’ve tested, and where else they’ve been.
And then AI—starting with the right use cases, using it to personalize the experience, and using it to automate complicated, time-consuming steps like document validation and reusing captured data.
Zach: Let’s talk more about AI automation and tech tools in digital retail. From your perspective, how are AI-driven tools changing the game for dealerships of all sizes?
Paulo: Zach, I think AI is one of the most consequential technologies in history. I’m that bullish. It will transform how dealers optimize their business, and it will also transform how consumers engage with dealers.
My recommendation is a thoughtful approach. Start with a clear business need. Define KPIs tied to time saved or money created—not just “this tool seems cool.”
Make sure you have buy-in from your team. Dealer principals and GMs can be excited about new tech, but if they don’t bring their teams into the conversation, people resist and stick to what they know works. Champions matter.
And I can’t say enough about data quality—identity resolution, deduping, aggregating as much data as you can—because AI is only as good as the data behind it.
Also: partner due diligence. There’s been an explosion of AI vendors. Security and compliance matter as much as the use cases. Certifications, data handling, customer information protection, cybersecurity posture—all critical.
And finally: go slow to go fast. Pick testbeds, deploy thoughtfully, embed over time.
Zach: Omnichannel isn’t just putting a car online—it’s aligning digital and in-person activity to create a modern experience. What are the key internal change-management or operational shifts dealers need to make to fully benefit?
Paulo: Leadership alignment first—principal, GM, GSM, finance director. Set expectations with frontline roles: sales associates, sales managers, F&I managers.
Start small and build a testbed to get early wins and pilots, then scale without re-platforming because you picked something that wasn’t scalable. Create an environment where you celebrate wins—big and small—so the team feels momentum and feels part of the process.
Then roll out progressively: maybe you start in used and expand to new, or start in one store and expand to the group—sharing wins makes adoption easier.
Zach: Looking ahead three to five years, how do you see the used-car retail landscape evolving for dealers who embrace digital versus those who don’t?
Paulo: I think the next three to five years will be a fundamental shift. Today consumers shop online, but a lot of what they find is information and data—not really advice. AI gives consumers an expert in their pocket: an expert on dealer business models, inventory levels, pricing, finance options.
Here’s an example I heard recently: a consumer walks into the showroom, gets the traditional four-square, pulls out their phone, takes a picture, feeds it into ChatGPT, and asks it to analyze it. ChatGPT points out fees, interest rate issues, and trade-in mismatches. The sales associate freezes because they’ve never been confronted with that scenario before.
That stops being a “20 Group story” and becomes reality. Consumers will understand the deal in real time, and dealers will have to think about transparency and digital experience differently. If you don’t, you’ll struggle.
Then there are AI agents. They’re early, but we’re starting to see real use cases, and at NADA you’ll see more. Imagine consumers asking an agent to get trade valuations from 10–12 stores while they go get coffee, then returning to 7–8 quotes. That environment isn’t far away.
Not every consumer will use agents immediately, but adoption curves are steep. ChatGPT has hundreds of millions of active users monthly. If we assume it will take forever, we might be wrong. Digital and AI become non-negotiable. If dealers don’t adopt, consumers will—and they’ll come in armed with tools that make it hard to catch up.
Zach: With the shift to digital and more direct-to-consumer models, how do you see dealer–lender relationships, F&I processes, and aftermarket service evolving?
Paulo: More of the F&I process that historically sat in the F&I box will migrate into the online experience. Today most dealers offer a credit app online, but the expectation will shift toward instant credit decisions online.
Many dealers hesitate to present aftermarket products online, but if more consumers complete more steps online—and eventually complete the whole deal online—you won’t have a choice. You’ll need to present products digitally, or you simply won’t sell them. That doesn’t mean you can’t follow up if someone opts out, but it becomes inevitable.
Transparency will be forced by AI in F&I as well. Consumers will benchmark interest rates and product pricing more easily.
Another trend: as more of the journey happens online, subprime consumers may prefer that path rather than going store to store running credit. The industry will have to get better at dynamic deal structuring and transitioning to special finance expertise behind the scenes.
And I think the expectation is that the F&I process becomes more like a self-checkout experience: less manual time on contracting and clerical steps, and more focus for the F&I manager on protecting reserve and presenting a strong menu—while technology handles the rest.
Zach: I really like your observation about subprime engagement online and tools for those shoppers. That’s a market we work closely with, and it’s often overlooked in terms of technology—so that’s a really interesting point.
As we wrap up, what is one digital retail practice every used-car dealer should adopt today, from your perspective?
Paulo: It’s hard to pick one, but here’s the biggest thing: give consumers the opportunity to complete as little or as much of the buying process online as they choose. Make the online experience flexible so they can do the steps they want now and get expert help for the rest.
Reduce it to one funnel and honor what happens online when they show up in-store. That doesn’t mean the final in-store deal must match the online pencil exactly. But the last pencil online should be your starting point in-store.
If you say, “Those online calculations are always off—let me show you the real numbers,” you destroy trust. Instead, build from it: “Now we have more info—like a submitted credit app and real lender decisions—so here’s the updated interest rate and updated structure.” That keeps credibility and trust intact.
Zach: Very well said, Paulo. I’ve enjoyed talking with you—you’re smart, analytical, and well-spoken. I think whether you’re a franchise or independent dealer, you’re walking away from this episode with new data points and food for thought. Really enjoyed the conversation today.
Paulo: The feeling is mutual. This has been great, Zach. Thank you so much for the opportunity, and I look forward to staying in touch.
Zach: Likewise.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.png)
.png)
