The past two years of pandemic and supply chain disruptions as competition from startup rivals grew have forced traditional dealership groups to take a closer look at the convenience and customer experience they offer.

That has led to a shift from a linear, store-driven sales process to more of a hybrid one — in which a consumer can start or finish a car deal online and jump in and out of the digital or in-store environments as often as necessary. That approach is often referred to as omnichannel retailing.

I wrote this week about the digital retailing initiatives by the nation’s public dealership groups. Several are investing in — and targeting greater revenue from — their own branded online tools. They generally aim to leverage their brick-and-mortar stores and digital platforms to create a flexible, omnichannel experience that gives them the scale to reach a wide swath of consumers.

That hybrid approach may be an advantage for the public groups over online retailers Carvana and Vroom, says Marvin Fong, an equity analyst at BTIG, who analyzed digital sales data from both types of vehicle sellers.

Fong estimated the public franchised groups likely increased their digital market share for used vehicles to 13 percent of the market as of the first quarter, up from roughly 9 to 11 percent before. That increase can be explained in part because Carvana and Vroom lost ground in the quarter; he said Carvana in particular dealt with constraints including economic headwinds and inadequate reconditioning capacity.

It’s also partly because of the growth of Lithia Motors Inc.’s Driveway platform, which Fong’s analysis showed gained the most market share of any of the six major public new-vehicle retailers in the first quarter this year compared with the fourth quarter of 2021.

“In certain cases, they have the benefit of doing things in an omnichannel sort of way, which is sort of able to service a larger customer base,” Fong said of the public groups. “Not every customer out there wants a purely digital experience.”

That bodes well for them. Said Fong: “I definitely see the brick-and-mortar guys gaining additional share.”