Many retailers are reporting installing a half dozen or more dashcams per week, up by double digits from a year ago. But some are still stymied by how to ween consumers off bringing in dashcams purchased online.
Dashcam margins are also close to 20 percent, so dealers must find ways to include attachment sales to drive profits.
But some retailers are able to bring in $100,000 or more a year in the segment, so it’s a category that deserves some attention.
Mohammed Arman of Armando Sounds installs about eight dashcams per week, but of those he sells about three, as consumers buy off of Amazon. His aim this year is “to get them to buy the dashcam from me.”
Sound Depot & Performance, FL does about six or more installs a week, up by 50 percent from two years ago. Said, Omar Jawad “Some days I come in and all that’s in the bay are cars getting dashcams.” His shop is working on making the category more profitable.
Opportunity for Aftermarket
Ten to 16 percent of drivers who own or lease a car now have a dashcam, according to a study of 1,000 drivers by Marc Brown Law Firm. And 30 percent of drivers with commutes longer than 40 minutes are interested in purchasing one..
Plus, 21 percent of respondents are concerned about the installation difficulty. All these combined, spell an opportunity for car audio specialists.
The Secret Formula
Mark Miller, who writes for this website as Mr. Retail will address dashcams in a seminar on attracting upscale clients at MasterTech Expo. He advises retailers to treat dashcams a category, not a commodity. That means carrying a good, better, best selection and selling your service so that customers return the dashcam they bought on Amazon.
Ten percent of Miller’s sales are in dashcams. The key, he says, is to “create an environment of selling a better dashcam and better install. I have clients return their cameras all the time to buy one of ours because they want our install.”
Miller sells $300, $600, $750 and $1,000 dashcams. But most of his sales are in $1000 models, and the $300 sales are rare. He also offer an LTE option for the $1,000 camera along with a larger capacity memory card.
He tells the customer up front, “Before we mount the front and rear cameras, the tech pairs his phone to the app so we see it live and know where exactly to put the camera based on that image.” The shop sets the recording and impact settings for the client and then explains it to the customer. It then asks the customer, “Do you want to be out there in left field figuring it our yourself on YouTube?”
The final step is to go out to the client’s vehicle, help them pair their phone to the camera and then show them how to us it. “Think of it like going out to their car to explain how to use the CarPlay or Android Auto part you have been installing for years.”
Another retailer, Sounds Good Car Audio of Canada was bringing in about $80,000 worth of dashcams (their cost) about four years ago. Sounds Good’s dashcam business has declined since then, with the rise of an aggressive dashcam-only shop in the area.
Keith McCumber said, “The market is still there. It’s still a staple. So, when people come in they may not ask for it, but we always offer it because it’s important to record things that go on surrounding your vehicle to be safe.” He now sells about 3 to 5 a week.
Mark D’Elia of SoundFX, RI said not all markets can sell $1,000 dashcam kits. “The market is so disruptive, with thousands of brands, and so many are DIYers. It’s nice extra business but it will never be a game changer for most. We did roughly $30k in cams last year, and I think we show them well here, and have a sign out front. We sell the most expensive version the most, around $800-$1000. Many call in with their own kits, some will return them, but some wont.”
