SHOPSMART AUTOS – CUSTOMER INFORMATION – AUGUST 9, 2020
SHOPSMART AUTOS – CUSTOMER INFORMATION – AUGUST 9, 2020 Auto Shopping Moments Every Brand Must Own Some of my fondest memories as a child were spent with my Dad, shopping for a new car. Going from dealership to dealership, climbing in and out of the vehicular jungle gyms perfectly arranged on the showroom floors. When I went to work in the auto industry a decade later, I learned that these weren’t just my wonder years. They were the golden age for the auto industry, too. They represent a time when people were loyal to brands and got their answers at the source—a local dealership. My, how things have changed. Far from the daylong adventures of my youth, the average car purchaser today makes just two visits to dealerships. Sparked by digital, and ignited by mobile, those indelible moments with my dad have been replaced by countless micro-moments—times when car shoppers turn to digital to help select the perfect vehicle for their needs. Which-car-is-best moments Six out of 10 car shoppers enter the market unsure which car to buy. To help narrow their choices, many start by consulting someone they trust. This can come in the form of reaching out to that one friend we all have who is bizarrely obsessed with cars (a hat I proudly wear), by reading blogs or forums, or by searching for review sites like Edmunds, KBB, and Car and Driver. How do you want to Buy Moment No matter the source, data shows these early research moments are increasingly influenced by video. In fact, of people who used YouTube while buying a car, 69% were influenced by it—more than TV, newspapers or magazines. We’ve seen a huge increase in searches for car reviews on YouTube—everything from in-depth expert reviews from YouTube creators to more traditional industry reviewers that compare two models head-to-head in the same video. Auto review videos on YouTube have been watched more than 3M hours in the first 9 months of 2018, of which more than 1.2M were on mobile, more than 2X as many as last year.Where-should-I-buy-it moments Even as the majority of the car shopping process moves online, the visit to the nearby car dealership remains a crucial step in the journey. In fact, search interest for “car dealerships near me” has doubled in the past year. And of those that used their mobile devices as part of the purchase process, one in three located or called a dealer on their mobile device. Beyond the “where,” shoppers also look for the “when” and “what.” Search interest for “are dealers open Sunday,” for example, is popular, particularly on mobile phones (making up 84% of those searches). Search interest for inventory, to find if the right car is in stock, is growing more than four times faster than overall auto search interest. And while websites and apps can often answer those questions, sometimes a good old fashioned phone call is still the way to go—with search interest in dealer phone numbers up over 78% in the past year (the majority of which, not surprisingly, happen on mobile). Finally, shoppers look at “which.” Which dealership is going to deliver the best experience. Just as more car shopping happens on weekends, search for dealership reviews spike on the weekends, as well. Whereas dealership review searches happen more on desktop during the week, mobile becomes the preferred method on weekends, making up 56% of searches. Am-I-getting-a-deal moments
OK. The deal just got real. The shoppers are on the lot. And they know what they want. But they need to know they’re getting a fair deal. In other words, this stage is all about that game of poker we all play as consumers, sitting across the laminate desk, looking at pictures of the sales person’s kids, asking ourselves “could someone with kids that adorable NOT be giving me the best possible price?” Where questions like those used to be a matter of going with our gut, today they are about going with our phone. Today, half of all car shoppers with mobile devices use their smartphones while at the dealership. The top action people perform with their phones while on the lot, not surprisingly, is confirming that they are getting a good price on a vehicle. Searches for Kelley Blue Book and competing dealers occur more often when at the dealership. Make it a champion day!
Tags: 2019 Subaru Forester Touring, 2020 BMW iX3, 2020 Chevrolet Suburban, 2020 dodge charger, 2020 EQC, 2020 Ford Super Duty, 2020 Honda Pilot, 2020 Kia Optima, 2020 Kia Soul, 2020 Lincoln Aviator, 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC
Trackback from your site.
