SAN ANTONIO -

The mid-2000s: George W. Bush was early in his second term as U.S. president. The iPhone had yet to be released. The Boston Red Sox had just reversed an 86-year curse.

And the way folks shopped for and bought cars was vastly different. The retail market has since been flipped on its axis and the auto industry has had to adapt.

Ten years back, car shoppers drove around to four or five different dealerships, Neale O’Bannion — director of independent inventory and DealerFire solutions at DealerSocket — said during a presentation at the company’s User Summit in San Antonio.

They might shop for only one to four hours during the car-buying process, and third-party listing sites were the main destinations.

But with the advent and permeation of mobile devices, car shopping has been transformed in the past decade.

While automotive ecommerce is still in its infancy, people buy everything from pet products to shoes online. And when it is time to buy a car, they will spend anywhere from 19 hours to 23 hours researching on the Web.

And once they choose a store, they’re fairly decisive on the purchase.

“By the time they step on the lot, they’ve pretty much made that buying decision,” O’Bannion said.

Beyond automotive, the Amazon way of shopping has become a way of life in retail. It’s often how consumers choose to transact, largely because of ease of use and convenience.

As O’Bannion’s slides indicated, the “Amazon Prime experience became a standard. … Corporations embrace e-commerce globally, and provide experiences that make it very easy for consumers to buy their products online.”

As part of that, expectations have changed, O’Bannion explained. Consumers want fast load times, for instance; if there is a delay in load time on a website, he said, they’ll often go elsewhere to transact.

Which underscores the importance of websites for dealerships: This is typically the first time a consumer will be interacting with the store, O’Bannion said.  

First impressions can be everything. Be sure to include accurate pricing information, several vehicle photographs and vehicle descriptions.

Search engine trends

This can be a shot in the arm for a dealer. O’Bannion’s presentation pointed out that search engines are the starting point of 92 percent to 96 percent of purchasing decisions.

And according to the Think With Google Auto Shopper Trends report from July, there has been an increase in searches for both dealership searches and automotive “near me” searches.

Meanwhile, there has been a dip in review site searches.

Catch them early
 
Lastly, O’Bannion emphasized that it’s important to reach customers early in the buying process. Steps 1 or 2 are far more impactful than steps 6 through 10.

Doing so allows the shopper to see what makes a dealer stand out from its competition, what makes it unique, what value it brings to the equation.

“You’re not just a number at that point,” he said. “You’re not just a sale price.”