Crack the online retail code — now

Those Carvana ads running on TV lately look pretty inviting. Maybe you've seen them. They go like this:

"Many of life's moments are being put on hold. At Carvana, we understand that for some, getting a car just can't wait."

We're just four seconds in and already getting a glimpse of a flatbed truck on a leafy street carrying your next car to your driveway.

The message from there: Shop online from the comfort of your couch. Get your car with touchless delivery. And, because times are what they are, you'll get up to 90 days to make that first payment

All is bliss. With no mention of the fact that this will be a used car, touched a zillion times by a previous owner. (Yes, Carvana's website does note "vehicle sanitization" as part of the delivery process.)

One of the big automotive themes to come out of the coronavirus pandemic is the inevitability of more online retailing. That stood out in a survey of 314 dealers conducted by the Automotive News Data Center in mid-March.

A full 88 percent of respondents said they were likely to increase use of digital tools to engage customers. Nearly three in four said they were likely to offer at-home walkarounds, test drives and delivery.

Said one respondent: "This will reshape consumer behavior forever."

Many have been reshaped already. According to a KPMG survey of 2,500 U.S. consumers in early April, more than 75 percent said they would prefer to complete the purchase, trade-in, finance and delivery transactions remotely.

Sure, some entrepreneurial dealers, with the help of savvy vendors, have already been going this way. But Gary Silberg, KPMG's auto chief for the Americas, says manufacturers need to step it up, too. And if they do it well, they have a chance to stand out.

"It's a wonderful opportunity for the brands to do this," Silberg said.

General Motors, to its credit, created Shop-Click-Drive years ago. Honda (Shop Simple), Toyota (SmartPath) and Fiat Chrysler (Online Retail Experience) are all getting big pushes this year.

In Silberg's view, more need to join the parade. And all of them could benefit from building a high-quality and consistent look and feel around the experience of ordering a car online.

In other words, it's not something a brand does; it's something a brand is.

Think simple and elegant, like Apple. Or think Tesla. Visitors to Tesla.com get an immediate invitation to "Order Online for Touchless Delivery."

"It's really all about the Tesla brand and what it stands for," Silberg says. "That should be the standard to shoot for."

Too bad many automakers spent much of the past decade pushing dealers to invest in the look of their dealerships, which are becoming less and less relevant. Imagine where they'd be now if that collective effort had been spent building digital infrastructure instead.

Alas, this is not the time for regret. It is the time to make the most out of what you have. And Silberg sees another opportunity ripe for automakers: the "security" factor of a new car in a virus-fearing age.

Get parents into the ads, Silberg says. Bridge them to the kids and grandparents. Then make an emotional connection to this "clean" space.

That's a message nobody else — not even Carvana — can touch.