Industry Success Stories
Powersports
Rolling Thunder's Favorite Functionality
Xero & Shopify Integration
Inventory Management
Ease of Use
Rolling Thunder Harley-Davidson's Story
The Dealership
Rolling Thunder Harley-Davidson (RTHD) was founded in 1964. Chris Elles emigrated from the United States to New Zealand in 2001 and has been the owner of RTHD since 2001. And despite it being a mid size dealership, RTHD has been making big strides to become a true-digital first dealership.
The Challenge
While RTHD’s old dealership management system (DMS) package was functional, Elles described it as “a jack of all trades and master of none.”
Under the old system, RTHD experienced two main issues.
- Little room for growth: The old dealership management system did not have a big enough customer base to allow for future development. You could only do what you needed to do. As a result, the old system did not possess the same scalability as a more future-focused software service, like Blackpurl.
- Segregated systems: Prior to using Blackpurl, RTHD was using Shopify for online sales, which meant that the dealership was running two inventory systems—one for their digital storefront on Shopify and one for their physical storefront. Something needed to change.
The Solution
Since Blackpurl had tons of experience in the DMS arena and a digital-first mindset, RTHD wanted in on the action and improve the way their dealership ran. And Blackpurl exceeded the expectations of Rolling Thunder Harley-Davidson by allowing them to do what they needed to do and so much more.
The Results
Through Blackpurl, RTHD was able to achieve a fully integrated system between Blackpurl and Shopify that ultimately allowed them to have one inventory system. If something was purchased in-store, the change was reflected in Shopify, and vice versa. At the end of the day, Blackpurl gave room for RTHD to do everything they were doing before and enabled them to grow beyond their current capabilities, resulting in a smoother and more efficient operation.
Since making the transition from their old DMS to Blackpurl, the dealership now has the best-in-class in every category, including Best-in-class core, best-in-class plug in, accounting, e-commerce, and marketing modules. That’s the added bonus with Blackpurl, it’s actively building integrations so dealers have access to other best-in-class applications.
And the best part? Blackpurl is relatively easy to use for the entire team.
According to Elles, one of the biggest advantages to using Blackpurl is that it’s easy to get your team on board with using the system. Thanks to a great database of online videos, plenty of frequently asked questions (FAQs), and a supportive representative team, Blackpurl is straightforward to use, even for those who are uneasy with technological change.
“If you can use basic modern computer programs, like Windows, you’d be fine with this [Blackpurl]. There’s nothing complicated about it.”
At the end of the day, Elles thinks of Blackpurl as the cornerstone of everything you build off of and he highly recommends it to other dealerships who are looking to become more digital-first.
“I think anyone who’s in a similar position as us with a traditional dealership needs to be [seriously] looking at trying to make that transition over to a digital-first system. It is absolutely doable, even for a fairly small dealership. Blackpurl has allowed us to build a DMS that is perfectly customized to our own specific needs.”
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