For years, many equipment dealers dismissed eCommerce with one line: “We’re not Amazon.”
And for a long time, that was true. For years, it was easy to point at national chains and say, “We’re different.” You are—because you assemble units, stand behind the sale, and know your customers by name. But the gap has moved. Today, the edge goes to the local dealer who is open online when buyers are browsing from the couch.
Online now accounts for 16.3% of total U.S. retail sales (Q2 2025). Shoppers bring those expectations to big‑ticket equipment, too. If your website is still a brochure, it’s quietly handing sales to the dealer who lets customers click “Buy Now” instead of “Call for Availability.”
The Cost of Standing Still
Picture this: it’s Saturday night, and a shopper finds your mower online. They want to buy it, but they can’t reserve, deposit, or check out. By Monday, they’ve already picked up the same model across town. You never even knew the lead existed.
That’s the cost of standing still — not losing sales to Amazon, but losing local business to dealers who make buying easier.
What Winning Dealers Do Instead
Dealers who are winning online aren’t shipping tractors across the country. They offer Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS)—a setup that gives customers the online checkout they want and the local service you’re known for.
Here’s how it works: Customers buy online. Your team preps the unit. The buyer picks it up, ready to go.
No shipping. No freight. No MAP or PDI headaches. Just more sales that happen while your shop’s closed.
Take Stark Street Lawn & Garden in Oregon, which replaced outlinks to OEM-managed microsites with a true on‑site checkout and saw immediate results: their first riding mowers sold online (tickets up to $4,600), and more than half of online buyers were new customers. As their online specialist put it, enabling checkout is like having a 24/7 salesperson on the team—without adding headcount.
“We thought eCommerce meant shipping mowers or hiring more staff,” says Chad from Stark Street. “But once we realized customers could buy online and pick up in-store, it clicked. We’ve sold over $20,000 in whole goods in six months—and didn’t change how we operate.”
That’s not an exception — it’s a growing trend. Dealers are quietly turning their websites into digital storefronts that sell around the clock, capturing orders their competitors never see.
Why Now Matters
Fall is when many dealers—especially outdoor power equipment dealers—finally get a little breathing room—and when the strategic ones test new improvements to their sales processes. Before next season’s rush, the dealers investing in online checkout will have the advantage: quiet phones, fewer missed calls, and a steady stream of after-hours orders.
The industry has turned a corner. Some dealers are already living the “after-hours sales” story you’ve been hearing about.
If you wait until next spring, you’ll be chasing those who have already started.
Your Next Step
You don’t need to ship equipment, overhaul your team, or become “an eCommerce dealer.”
You just need to make buying easier for your customers—and keep those local sales where they belong.
Download our playbook: Empowering OPE Dealers: Leveraging eCommerce to Compete Like Big‑Box Stores for a practical guide to launching whole‑goods checkout (without changing your identity as a local dealer).
Get to Know Dealer Spike
If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to bridge your in-store experience with online convenience, that’s where Dealer Spike comes in.
We build connected industry-tailored digital solutions designed for dealerships — combining your inventory, eCommerce, and DMS into one system built around how dealers actually sell. Our platform includes OEM-approved data, accurate specs and imagery, and co-op-ready promotions that keep your listings current and compliant.
At its core, Dealer Spike helps dealerships sell online without losing what makes them unique: the trust, service, and expertise that keep customers coming back.