Reffine

Your OEM website is a massive sales funnel asset. 📈

According to the JD Power 2026 U.S. Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study, your website is an important engine driving the modern automotive buyer journey.

🔍 For undecided shoppers, it is a primary exploration engine – 94% of them visit the manufacturer's website and spend significant time browsing detailed content.

✅ 83% of undecided shoppers websites still remain a mandatory destination for product validation and technical specification checks.

✨ 66%+ of those undecided shoppers say they would consider purchasing the brand featured on the website after engaging with its content.

As Cory Maxwell, digital experience consultant at JD Power, noted:
“One in three new-vehicle shoppers begin their journey without a specific brand in mind, yet nearly all of them still visit an OEM website. While those shoppers are highly engaged, we continue to see that about 20 percent of OEM sites prioritize branding over the detailed vehicle information shoppers are actively seeking.”

Recently we experienced an AWS outage in the Bahrain region affecting part of our infrastructure. Not just us, a lot of companies.

Fortunately, we handled the situation smoothly, mainly thanks to preparation.

As Tomasz Badowiec, CTO at Reffine, commented the situation with the servers:
“The cloud sometimes feels like something abstract, but it’s still physical infrastructure. These are real servers in real locations. And when something happens there, you need to be ready.”

A few things that worked well and might be useful for others:

1️⃣ Our monitoring tools alerted us almost 𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐖𝐒 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, which gave us valuable time to react.

2️⃣ Instead of deciding what to do under pressure, we followed our predefined 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬.

3️⃣ Our 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 and ultimately successful, but we learned how to make the next one much faster (shall it ever happen).

4️⃣ With Infrastructure as Code we didn’t need to manually configure everything (though some things needed to be done manually). The environment could be 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐝𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫.

5️⃣ Doing regular backups meant that even in a worst-case scenario, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞.

And as Krzysztof Niksinski, Platform engineering Team Lead at Reffine, noted after the incident:
“This kind of work is usually invisible. When everything runs smoothly, nobody thinks about it, but it’s crucial for everything else to work properly.”

Incidents like this are a good reminder that monitoring, automation and disaster recovery planning really matter.

On the surface, most CMS platforms look the same.
Same dashboards.
Same feature lists.
Same promises:
“Flexible, scalable, future-proof.”

So you choose an off-the-shelf CMS. Big brand. Big name.
The implementation goes smoothly.

The templates are there. The admin panel works.
𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲. 𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥... 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧'𝐭.

Because then you need something specific:
🔹 local integration with a retailer.
🔹 market-specific feature for a campaign.
🔹 custom component that doesn’t exist in the “standard package.”
🔹 new way to present offers, finance options or stock data.

So you contact your support person.

And that’s where the stairs begin.
A long process.
Endless calls.
Tickets forwarded between teams.
“Let’s schedule another meeting.”

Suddenly, what was supposed to be a platform becomes a limitation.
And instead of your CMS supporting your growth… your business starts adapting to the CMS.

At Reffine, we believe it should work the other way around.
You shouldn't have to fix your business into a box.
𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬.
Because automotive brands don’t operate in one market.
They operate across complex ecosystems: with integrations, partners, regulations, and local realities.

That’s why we build platforms designed for change.
Not stiff boxes.
More like origami.

Security and customer data are rarely something we actively worry about… until it’s too late.

That’s when a “non-issue” turns into a serious risk: financially, legally and reputationally.

workloads increasingly touch sensitive customer data, vehicle data and core business systems. Without a secure and well-governed platform, even the most advanced AI model becomes a liability.
That’s why security-by-design must be foundational.

Working with global automotive clients, we see just how critical this is. Different markets, different regulations, different risk profiles, but one shared expectation:
🔐 AI must be secure from day one.

This quote from Krzysztof Niksinski , PET Lead and Engineer at Reffine, was shared as a comment on a newsletter"

“What is the #1 concern for 650+ automotive AI developers? It’s not speed.”

👉 Link to this episode in the comments.