Customer-centric automotive businesses adopt market-leading Sunbit to drive customer satisfaction and sales amid digital transformation push, making Sunbit’s footprint the largest in the industry
Sunbit, the company building financial technology for everyday expenses, announced today that it has further expanded its automotive footprint, continuing to lead the entire post-sale automotive ecosystem with its consumer financing tool. Today Sunbit is the preferred partner of 14 OEMs offered in more than 6,000 dealerships and 1,500 independent service shops, and has partnered with 22 of the top 25 largest auto groups in the nation. In addition, Sunbit technology is fully integrated into leading customer experience platforms, including Xtime, Quik, and Update Promise, making financing an integral part of the customer journey. With the announcement of its latest partnership with Everyware, a leading contactless payments and customer engagement platform, Sunbit’s total combined auto services footprint is the largest in the industry.
“As consumers hold onto their vehicles longer and as the national economic climate remains cloudy, keeping their existing cars running smoothly is a critical concern for American consumers,” said Tal Riesenfeld, cofounder and CRO, Sunbit. “Enabling consumers to get the parts, service, and care they need is—across the board—a top priority for businesses across the entire ecosystem. Sunbit delivers fast, fair financing choices to virtually every customer. With Sunbit, everyone wins.”
In 2016, Sunbit saw an opportunity to bring modern financing options to the post-sale market. Today, the depth and breadth of the company’s relationships across the entire complex auto ecosystem speak to the power of its technology and the strength of its relationships. Already, Sunbit has driven almost $1B in sales in the automotive sector by servicing more than 930K customers.
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Expanding via Partnership Integrations
In parallel to scaling in the dealership market where Sunbit expects to cross the 50% market share line in the next 18 months, Sunbit has also already onboarded more than 1,500 independent shops. The company expects to accelerate shop adoption by embedding its technology in mission-critical software platforms because consumer financing options are quickly becoming a must-have for serious providers.
Gunnar Winckler, Executive Director, Automotive Platform Partnerships, said, “In the last few years, the automotive sector has been experiencing a digital transformation. As with many industries, the automotive sector is laser-focused on providing an improved customer experience. As such, new software platforms have emerged, massively improving outcomes for dealerships and customers alike. Today, Sunbit’s pay-over-time technology is easily integrated into these mission-critical platforms where it is quickly becoming an essential part of improving the customer experience.”
Xtime, Quik, UpdatePromise, and now Everyware have recently chosen Sunbit because of its sophisticated integration capabilities, ease of use, and stellar reputation in the market.
“Partnering with Sunbit further increases our pay-over-time solutions, which are part of our payment options that we offer merchants. Sunbit’s quick and streamlined application process, along with high approval rates, makes it a great fit for our Pay By Text product,” said Larry Talley, CEO and Founder, Everyware.
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Participating Dealerships, Auto Groups, and OEMs
Since 2016, Sunbit’s technology has enabled fixed ops consumers to finance service or maintenance expenses over time. Already established in nearly 35% of the market, Sunbit’s broad deployment puts it in more than 6,000 dealerships across the country. On average, participating dealerships have seen an average repair order of more than $1,000 when using Sunbit technology, with more than 930K customers choosing to pay their repairs over time using Sunbit technology.
“Now offered by 60% of Kia dealerships, Sunbit is on pace to generate over $36MM in parts and service revenue in 2022. Not only does Sunbit build revenue and help customers get the repairs they need, but it also helps increase customer loyalty,” said Brian Sciumbato, National Manager, Service & Parts Marketing, Kia America
With 22 out of the top 25 dealership groups fully utilizing Sunbit in all their service drives, Sunbit has become a must-have for most of the leading groups.
“Before Sunbit, we had another point of sale financing solution. After seeing the performance in our pilot dealerships, we decided to roll Sunbit out across our service organization, ultimately adding over 250 dealerships to the program to date. Sunbit has become a significant tool in our service drives, helping more customers get the service they need and keeping them in the dealerships. Since launching, Sunbit has approved over 93% of our customers and produced over $44MM,” said Ken Erlan, Fixed Operations Director, Lithia Motors.
All approved applicants get access to three-month, 0% payment plans at participating merchants. Sunbit technology powers the simple 30-second application process, all with more than 90% approval rates. The technology can be accessed in-store through a tablet app or remotely through a customer’s own connected device and also is integrated into an online checkout process.