As Sean Stapleton puts it, there have never been more channels available to consumers and sellers in the car-shopping process than there are right now.
What’s more, the amount of data — as well as the importance of accuracy and the transparency of that data — is sky high.
Although upwards of 90-plus percent of shoppers are influenced by the Web, another part of the story here is how they use it — and that certainly has evolved.
Stapleton, the vice president of sales and marketing at VinSolutions, said it’s not just a matter of determining how many shoppers turn to the Internet.
“The real question probably should be, ‘What do you think those people are doing differently online than they did before?’” said Stapleton.
“Ten years ago, when I went online to research a car, there probably wasn’t as much transparency on price and transaction pricing,” he continued. “There probably wasn’t as many comments about the experience with the dealer and things like that.
“Now, I’m going online not only to find out, ‘Do I want the Chevy Malibu?’ but I want to know of my friends who had a Malibu, what their experience was like,” Stapleton said. “And then I want to go online and I want to see socially, all the other blogs or comments or things around the ownership experience — not only should I buy the car and what price should I buy it at, but does your Malibu last three years, five years, 10 years?
“Would your Malibu be a great car to give to your oldest child who might be a college grad? Therefore, I might be looking for safety ratings,” he continued.
Point is, he said, as a marketer, you have to make yourself and the information available in all the media channels that are out there for consumers — and manage that message you put out. Make sure it’s consistent, transparent and involves what matters to the consumer.
“Marketing, to me, is not a one-way message,” he said. “The new form of marketing is open, honest, transparent and bi-directional. And not only that, making sure I’m covering all the channels.”
But in communicating with customers, Stapleton said, don’t just choose the channel that is convenient for you. Keep the customer’s wishes in mind.
“One of the biggest mistakes people make is they immediately default to going to a medium that’s easier for them, instead of following the lead of the customer or prospect,” Stapleton said.
He gives this example. A customer texts you to ask if your dealership has one of the new aluminum-body Ford F-150s available for a test drive. And your natural reaction might be to call that customer. But texting — not a phone call — is the channel the customer has chosen. It’s important to pay attention and respect that. In other words, follow the lead of the customer.
Our expert panel continues in the digital and print editions of the Oct. 1 Auto Remarketing.
In our special section on Digital Trends, Tools & Strategies, you can find insight from Paul Seger of GE Capital Fleet Services — who talks about the tech-savvy approach dealers have taken in acquiring inventory — and Dale Pollak of vAuto, who discusses a new tool from Cox Automotive designed to boost online visibility for dealers' inventory by helping them improve their online listings.
One of the greatest challenges facing dealerships right now is that profit margins are increasingly under pressure. Several factors are at play, but it’s clear that the Internet is making it increasingly difficult to earn strong retail gross profits per vehicle.
NADA reports that the average retail gross profit for used cars in 2013 was $2,361, up 13 percent from the previous year. But dive a little deeper into the numbers and you get a different picture. When you look at six of the top publicly owned dealerships, gross profits at five of them fall between about $1,470 and $1,900 per vehicle. Only Lithia beats the NADA average at more than $2,500 per used car.
Market-Based Pricing
What’s notable about those figures is that the five public dealership groups with average gross profits below NADA’s reported average are disproportionately concentrated larger in metropolitan areas — Lithia is the exception, with more stores in smaller markets. When I ask larger metro dealers why they are seeing margin pressure, I consistently hear about Internet-driven price competition from “market-based pricing.”
Market-based pricing is certainly a necessity given consumers’ unprecedented visibility into pricing through the Internet. With consumers able to compare prices across hundreds of dealerships during their online research, there is more pressure than ever on dealers to price their vehicles competitively.
Bad Timing
Unfortunately, while market-based pricing and the Internet are pressuring pre-owned margins, dealers’ cost structures have climbed. The dealership building boom driven by the factories has created beautiful facilities (ironically at a time when people stopped visiting dealers in person as much), but the result is a higher cost structure.
Furthermore, changing compensation for sales staff is also having an impact on dealerships’ cost structures. The average salary of a sales person was nearly $64,000 in 2013 versus $46,000 in 2002. With more expensive rent and higher salaries, less gross profit is getting to the bottom line.
And the really big news is that we are about to see a seismic shift in pre-owned profitability that every dealer needs to plan for.
In my next blog post, I’ll explain why.
Editor's Note: Pat Ryan Jr. is the CEO and Founder of several high-growth tech companies focused on transforming automotive retail, including FirstLook and MAX Digital. This and more of his posts can be found at getrelevantordie.com.
For many shoppers, having a call go through to voicemail might mean moving on to the next dealer.
And according to a new industry study, when shoppers search for cars, parts or auto services on their mobile phones and call a dealership, one in six times their calls don't get answered.
Mobile advertising technology company Marchex discussed the contents of a white paper titled, “Mobile Consumers Are Calling: How Inbound Phone Calls Help Auto Dealers Win Customers, Influence Brand Loyalty,” on Tuesday at the 17th Digital Dealer Conference.
The new study is part of the Institute’s Industry Trends series, which spotlights data in a particular business vertical.
The white paper stated that the perceived failure to consistently answer the phone at dealerships is causing stores to miss out on potentially high-margin leads.
Marchex used call analytics technology to take a look at data based on 1,000 randomly sampled mobile phone calls from consumers to dealerships across the U.S.
The findings were dramatic, with 16 percent of customers’ calls to dealerships going unanswered.
And if customers’ calls do get answered, the study found that 63 percent of the time, there is no attempt to get the customers to make an appointment. And 66 percent of the time, dealership reps didn’t ask for the customer’s contact information.
“What we’ve learned is critical for the auto industry, especially given that cars, parts and services are what we consider high-margin sales,” said Chen Zhao, director of analytics at the Institute, and author of the study. “There’s no question that becoming more effective at capturing these leads over the phone can have a direct impact on dealers’ profitability.”
This data may be particularly important for the service department. According to the study, 74 percent of callers inquire about parts and services.
This is compared to the 14 percent of shoppers who are calling about new or used cars.
MBSi Capital Corp. acknowledged that interpreting compliance is not simple, especially when it comes to repossessions and recovery. The company compared it to trying to assemble a product from IKEA without directions.
While agreeing on a single, completely comprehensive definition of compliance can be an elusive goal, MBSi Capital insisted repossession agents who show they are aggressively trying to meet this challenge in an industry where the compliance burden is ever-growing are what separates prosperous agencies from floundering ones.
“Those vendors who are meeting the compliance challenge head on are the ones that will see themselves thrive and succeed,” said Greg Ward, the system sales director for MBSi Capital’s product, Compliance Made Easy.
“Those who bury their heads in the sand or opt to willfully ignore what’s going on around them will find it very difficult to survive. Compliance has to be a key component of any vendor’s business plan,” Ward continued.
Ward indicated that making compliance part of the workflow is something that should start immediately by systematically training employees to ensure adherence to proper policies and procedures. He pointed out that finance companies want to be able to see how repossession agents are training their employees, not just to make sure that they will do a good job, but also that they know the right way to conduct themselves.
“If you cannot readily show you are properly training your staff, tracking all of your complaints through to resolution and ensuring you have the proper licensing and insurance in place, it is fairly likely you will lose business to someone who does at some point in time,” Ward said.
“Having the systemic ability to address these areas of compliance with reporting in place, business will grow and market share will increase,” he added.
Ward acknowledged the threat of an audit or investigation by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been used to push many finance companies and recovery departments into spending thousands on products and services, but to date, the agency has yet to even hint at being interested in looking at how repossessors operate.
While nothing specific has happened yet, Ward stressed that industry professionals do believe that it’s only a matter of time before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s interest level in the repo industry increases, which is why it’s important for those in the industry to comprehensively address areas of compliance today.
“Lenders nationwide are altering their service-level agreements with compliance addendums like never seen before. And the level of due diligence being conducted on vendors is more thorough than ever,” Ward said.
“The need to proactively make strides in the area of compliance is not something that is just going to up and disappear one day,” he continued.
Tracking complaints is actually where Ward sees the biggest compliance gap between finance companies and repossessors. Ward estimated 80 percent of complaints are not currently documented.
If regulators were to see that such a significant number of complaints were not valid or resolved quickly and properly, Ward believes regulators’ comfort levels will actually increase and pressure will be taken off of the client in the long run.
“One thing I have learned over the past year is that there are three types in this industry,” Ward said. “The ones who fight and oppose compliance, the ones who sit back and wait, and those who meet it head-on and actually see this as positive and take action.
He went on to say, “Let me say this: Which group do you think the top lenders will ultimately end up working with? That’s an easy question to answer, right? Here is maybe a more difficult one to answer. In which group are you?”
Editor’s Note: Greg Ward discusses the three components of MBSi’s Compliance Made Easy suite of products and services through a podcast that’s available on the company’s blog.
The latest installment of the Auto Remarketing Training Series — a free webinar featuring experts from Automotive Internet Media (AIM) and Manheim — is set to give dealers another round of training they need to make better inventory decision to improve sales and gross profit.
The upcoming free webinar is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Dealers and their staffs can sign up for this free session by completing this simple registration.
The next ARTS session will include:
— Tony French, who heads up AIM’s CarClicks
“Everybody knows the Internet is a great place to market your inventory, but are you getting enough real buyers to consider your vehicles? You’ve acquired the inventory and have spent time and money on reconditioning. You’ve taken great photos, priced them competitively and written a very compelling description. All you need is more customers,” French said.
“We’ll talk about how you can get auto shoppers who live in your market to actually consider and buy your inventory.”
— Chris Hill, manager of customer education at Manheim’s The Wholesale Institute
Manheim reported earlier this week that wholesale used-vehicle prices (on a mix-, mileage- and seasonally adjusted basis) declined 0.7 percent in August. This was the fourth consecutive monthly decline and brought the August Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index reading to 121.8, down 0.4 percent from a year ago.
Manheim explained the recent downward movement in wholesale pricing reflects three elements, including a reversion to trend levels after an extended period of exceptionally strong pricing, increased wholesale supplies and in recent months, moderating retail demand.
Hill will highlight the tools Manheim has available to help dealers find inventory that will turn quickly and for enhanced profits.
The more time someone spends on the Web during the car-shopping process, the more dealerships they are likely to visit.
That’s according to the J.D. Power 2014 New Autoshopper Study released Tuesday, which examines the use of digital devices (computers, smartphones and tablets), websites and apps during the car-shopping and research process.
On average, what J.D. Power calls “automotive Internet users” are shopping on the Web for nearly 14 hours prior to buying a car.
Those who spend 12 or more hours on the Internet end up visiting an average of 3.3 dealers prior to buying.
Shoppers who shop the Internet between five and 11 hours visit an average of 2.5 dealers; those who spend between one and four hours online visit an average of only two stores.
“There may be a notion in the marketplace that the more auto shoppers use the Internet to determine which vehicle to buy, the fewer dealers they are inclined to shop, yet we see just the opposite,” said Arianne Walker, senior director of automotive media and marketing at J.D. Power.
“New-vehicle buyers who do a great deal of automotive Internet shopping also go to more dealerships to shop,” Walker added.
But they might not call or email you ahead of time, according to a similar study commissioned by Cars.com.
The study — titled “The Digital Influence: How Online Research Keeps Auto Shoppers in Control” and conducted by C+R Research — found that just half of car shoppers tend to contact the dealership before they stop by.
Most shoppers said “they felt (contacting the store) was unnecessary given the information available online,” the companies said in a summary of the findings.
“Digital platforms give shoppers the tools and knowledge to communicate when and how they choose, allowing them to control the dialogue with dealerships on their own terms," said Simon Tiffen, senior manager of advertiser insights at Cars.com.
“It’s why only half of consumers contact a dealership before making a visit; there's often little incentive when similar information is available from independent sources online,” Tiffen added.
That said, the dealership visit itself remains quite important.
“Not surprisingly, the dealer visit still ranks highly as a resource for auto shoppers. While consumers can find more information than ever online, nothing replaces the tactile experience of seeing, touching and test-driving a car, all of which helps tap into the emotional aspect of making such a significant purchase,” the Cars.com/C+R Research study indicates.
“But one of the challenges for dealers is that there’s so little they have control over before a shopper makes the decision to visit the dealership,” the analysis continues. “Consumers used to rely heavily on the dealer visit to learn more about a particular car. Now, with online sources and mobile devices placing so much information at their fingertips, consumers feel educated and confident before they ever set foot in a dealership.
“The result is that shoppers are visiting fewer dealerships, and those visits are overwhelmingly driven by online influences.”
The Cars.com/C+R Research study suggests that a fifth of shoppers visit one dealership, with a quarter visiting two.
Further emphasizing the relationship between the Web and the dealership visit, the study points that online sources (online searches, dealer websites and independent research sites) were chosen by more than two-thirds (68 percent) of in-market shoppers and recent purchasers to find a dealership. Outdoor ads (9 percent) and radio advertisements (8 percent), for instance, were significantly less popular, the study said.
Last month, Auto Remarketing also examined the topic of the dealership visit as part of an interview with AutoTrader.com's Isabelle Helms, who discussed findings from a similar study by her company that honed in largely on the Millennial generation — including what Generation Y finds most important about the dealership visit.
Editor's Note: The J.D. Power study was fielded between Feb. 25 and July 9, and the data in it was derived from the responses of more than 15,300 purchasers and lessees of new 2012 to 2014 model-year vehicles who gathered information digitally while shopping, the company said in its press release.
Meanwhile, the Cars.com/C+R Research study used responses from more than 1,000 in-market shoppers and recent automotive purchasers that were generated between April 30 and May 9. They included a mix of buyers/shoppers of new and used vehicles.
The thing about Millennials is, they can sniff out insincerity pretty easily.
That’s why when it comes to the dealership experience — be it online, in reviews or at the store — a transparent and genuine approach is the best route.
As the chief executive officer of DealerRater, Gary Tucker has his finger on the pulse of what shapes satisfaction in the customer experience with this and other generations — and he shared some of these insights with Auto Remarketing, particularly as it relates to Millennials and their car-shopping behaviors.
“I think to all consumers that rely on third-party reviews or user-generated content, both overtly and subconsciously, they’re looking for genuine feedback from consumers like them,” Tucker told Auto Remarketing in an August interview.
Millennials “have been just marketed to from sunrise to sundown their entire lives,” he said.
“They’re especially astute at perceiving genuine content online, and not being misled or confused by somebody who is trying to represent their dealership as delivering a great experience, when it really doesn’t,” Tucker said.
In other words, not much gets past Generation Y, which Tucker said is “just far more active with user-generated content — and there is research that says they’re far more trusting of user-generated content.”
For instance, he pointed out a social influence research paper done through a partnership between Ipsos MediaCT, Crowdtap and the Social Media Advertising Consortium that examined how Millennials viewed media.
One big takeaway, Tucker said, was that Millennials trust user-generated content 50 percent more than other forms of media.
“There is both a perceived and real higher level of trust that consumers put into third-party reviews when they’re done in a way that’s trustworthy, with high integrity and when they can put confidence in the process,” Tucker said.
Another bit of research Tucker mentioned was the “Local Consumer Review Survey 2014” from SEO firm BrightLocal, which indicates that 88 percent of local consumers (Millennial or otherwise) put as much trust in an online review as they would in a personal recommendation.
Or as Tucker puts it: the chat you used to have with your neighbor, standing in the driveway and checking out the new car, has now moved to online third-party reviews.
So, transition that to the dealership lot: what are the dealers with top review scores doing in the showroom to merit such strong online reputations?
Tucker explains that it has a lot to do with the evolution in the car-shopping process itself. More and more car shoppers are conducting their research at home — and this is particularly evident among Millennials. He also pointed out various research that indicates the number of dealerships shoppers, in general, visit these days has dropped from five just a few years ago to less than two now, according to some industry observers.
“So, they are doing a lot of research online, starting with the car and the brand of the car. They’re doing a lot of research online to determine what’s a fair price to pay for that car,” Tucker said. “Increasingly, they’re doing research online around which dealership to visit, and even going a level below that, which salesperson to ask for when they get to the dealership.
“So throughout that entire process, expectations are being built for an experience that’s being represented in all those different places where the consumer is doing their research,” he continued. “And a dealership that does it really well delivers on that expectation; they’ve got consistent in-store process and experience and culture that lives up to the experience that the consumer went through in the online research process.
“I think increasingly for Millennials, that's having salespeople that are prepared to inform and educate the buyers about the technology that’s in the vehicles and being prepared for a far more educated consumer in the sense of the amount of research that they’ve done on their purchase prior to setting foot in the showroom.”
And once they do, chances are they already know what they want. In fact, 70 percent purchase the car they had in mind when they stepped on the lot, versus 66 percent of all car buyers, a recent study from AutoTrader.com indicated.
Similar to what Tucker emphasized, AutoTrader vice president of research and market intelligence Isabelle Helms said that because of this pre-dealership decisiveness, a Millennial consumer needs a consultant on the lot who can provide a vehicle walk-through, particularly with the advancing technology in today’s cars.
“We know that over the last few years, consumers are visiting fewer dealerships during the shopping process. Today the average car-buyer visits 2.5 dealers. And as this research tells us, 70 percent of Millennials know what make/model they want and end up purchasing that make/model when they walk in to the dealership,” Helms told Auto Remarketing in an interview to discuss AutoTrader’s 2014 Automotive Buyers Influence Study this summer.
“So the dealership experience has to evolve with that. The consumer is educated; they know what they want. And when they visit they dealership, it’s all about the test-drive experience. It’s the test drive of the vehicle, but more importantly, it’s also the test drive of the technology,” she added. “So finding folks at the dealership that can showcase this technology and answer some of the more technical questions that they may have is something that dealerships need to be prepared to address with car-buyers. “
There are so many differences in the in-vehicle technology from model to model, the dealer needs to be able to answer the questions the shopper is bound to have for the specific car he or she has chosen, Helms said. For instance, can the driver connect their devices with the in-car technology? What are the steps toward using the technology?
“What’s interesting is, consumers aren’t walking into dealerships anymore wanting to look and explore the various makes and models,” Helms said. “It’s, ‘No, I want this make/model and I want to learn more about the car. I want you to answer the questions for me that I couldn’t get answers to on my own by searching the Internet.’”
And then when it comes to the online experience (for Millennials and others), Tucker recommends that dealers make information on their websites readily available and easy to find and “meet the customer where they are.”
Additionally, be sure to showcase and explain what makes your dealership unique: explain what’s in your inventory that would meet the shopper’s needs, and provide information on other peripheral services you offer. And make your site easy to navigate.
“Whether you’re talking about Millennials or really any generation, their expectations are being shaped every day by other consumer experiences. And I think for Millennials the most often referred to comparison is the Apple store,” he said. “They (Millennials) have a consumer experience benchmark, and they’re constantly comparing all different aspects of their consumer life to that benchmark.”
The successful dealers, he said, are the ones who provide easily accessible and easily navigable information for the customer, so that he or she can find the data they need on a car without any fuss.
But say a dealer has a lower-than-desired online reputation score. What steps should they take?
Tucker says the foundation of a strong review or rating comes from a good experience, which is “the hard work that’s done every day in the dealership,” he said.
“And we know that It is hard work to consistently deliver a great experience,” Tucker added.
But he did offer three best practices for dealers to follow to help generate stronger reviews:
- Ask for stories from customers to provide greater detail and context of their experience at your store.
- Have photographs of your staff on your website as well as your DealerRater page
- Instill a culture of embracing transparency. Celebrate good reviews, post them on the walls of your store, but also engage with your staff about negative ones, as well. Communicate with the customer and figure out what the cause of dissatisfaction was — and learn from it.
“There is still a minority of dealers that have completely embraced transparency, and they’re genuinely seeking to build trust with their prospective and current customers through a spirit of transparency. These guys are prominently featuring review content in their advertising, on their websites, in their showroom, at their salespeople’s desks — and promoting this notion that you’re going to have a good experience at our dealership and we’re so confident of that, we want you to hear about it from other consumers,” Tucker said.
“They’re fully embracing that participation from all their customers, both on the show floor side and the service side,” he continued. “And, essentially, the other part of that story is, you really can’t promote a positive experience unless you’re delivering one.
“We know that it’s difficult to deliver a great customer experience in the showroom, but for those dealers that have good process and good people and are consistently delivering a positive experience, that proactive promotion of transparency through ratings and reviews is something that they can leverage very effectively in the marketplace.”
Negotiation. Easily one of the least desirable aspects of buying a car for most shoppers.
But it seems a large portion of the population is growing more comfortable with the haggling process: Women.
According to the survey results from a survey from Swapalease.com, women are “warming” up to the negotiation process — more so than men, in fact.
According to the online survey – which was presented to more than 1,000 drivers across the country — a third of the female responders (33.3 percent) say negotiation “makes it (car buying) a fun process”, compared to only a quarter (25.1 percent) of men respondents.
Furthermore, 22.7 percent of men say they “have learned to do it, but really don’t like it” compared with 17.5 percent of women.
This comes on the heels of another study from Women-Drivers.com shared that the most important factor in car-buying for women is now respect.
The Swapalease.com study also took a look at men and women’s negotiating strategies and how they differ.
Though both men (60.6 percent) and women (53.5 percent) said they prefer to have lots of information that they have researched beforehand to present to the dealer while negotiation, women tend to focus on the first monthly payment as a means to make a car deal more attractive.
According to the survey, 22.4 percent of women said they first try to focus on the monthly payment when negotiation, while only 8.9 percent of men cited this strategy.
And although women are becoming more comfortable with the haggling process, men are more likely to ask for more money off MSRP than women, according to the Swapalease.com study.
Illustrating this assertion, the survey notes that 81.3 percent of men said they work to negotiate $2,000 or more off the price of a vehicle, compared with 63.8 percent of women.
Showing slightly lower haggling expectations, 20.7 percent of women said they look to negotiate $1,000 off the price, compared to 9.9 percent of men.
Overall, though shoppers may be relatively comfortable with the idea of negotiating, it can still be an arduous task.
According to the study results, some shoppers feel the cards are stacked against them, while others may not be exactly sure what a fair price looks like.
The study results showed that 31.8 percent of men “feel like the dealer will always win,” and 36.8 percent of women gave a similar response.
That said, an equal number of women also said they’re “not sure what a good/fair price should be.”
Milllennials spend over two hours more on car shopping than the general population, and most of that is done online.
And the Web is also where these shoppers are most likely to be influenced when it comes to deciding on which car to buy.
So what can dealers do to bulk up their Internet presence to reach Generation Y at this most opportune part of the car-shopping process? Some of the strategies may surprise you — and that’s what Auto Remarketing recently discussed with Isabelle Helms, who is vice president of research and market intelligence at AutoTrader.com.
Earlier this month, Helms shared a comprehensive overview of AutoTrader’s 2014 Automotive Buyers Influence Study, which dives deep into how consumers are shopping both online and in-store as well as the devices they’re using in the process.
A substantial portion of the study involves data on how Millennials behave in the car-buying process.
The first installment of our look at AutoTrader’s study examined how dealers can improve the in-store experience to better reach this generation; this time around, we look at how they can utilize and boost their Web presence to influence Gen Y shoppers.
“The fact that Millennials are spending more time on the Internet and that the Internet is enabling all shoppers, including Millennials, to be more efficient with the shopping process is impactful for dealers,” Helms told Auto Remarketing. “It’s important they have a very strong digital presence.”
Consumers in general — Gen Y or otherwise — are fairly undecided as to what car they want they begin shopping. In fact, 70 percent of Millennials are undecided.
And while the average time spent shopping by the general population (15.5 hours) and Millennials this year (17.6 hours) is less than it was in 2011 (17.5 hours for general population; 19.1 hours for Gen Y), both groups are spending a greater share of their respective car-shopping time online.
In 2011, the general population spent 62 percent of the car shopping online. This year, that number is at 75 percent.
Similarly, Milllennials spent 76 percent of their car shopping process online in 2011. That has climbed to 82 percent this year.
The average car buyer visit 8.8 sites, Helms said. Millennials, meanwhile, visit 10.1 websites, on average.
“They’re spending more time online, visiting more sites, so it’s incredibly important for dealers to ensure they have a very widespread presence on the Internet to influence decisions along the way,” Helms said.
Social Media Findings
When it comes to social media, this is not necessarily a sticking point for Millennials during the actual car-shopping process (nor for the general population). Just 5 percent of Gen Y uses it to shop and only 1 percent of the overall population does. What’s more, 78 percent of Millennials and 83 percent of the overall population said social media had no impact on their perception of an auto brand.
“Social does have a place in that it helps brands create awareness for particular makes and models, for instance,” Helms said. “It can have a very strong play for ongoing relationships with consumers, but as it pertains to car shopping and helping consumers make decisions, we see in our research today that it’s just not something consumers are turning to.”
So, essentially, dealers should hone their social efforts for relationship development or efforts like creating awareness of service specials, for example, Helms said. But car buyers are not turning to social for car-buying info.
Mobile & Multiple Devices
On the other hand, mobile is huge for Gen Y.
AutoTrader has noticed a downturn in the use of desktops and laptops during the car-shopping process, and that decline is even more noticeable with Millennials, Helms noted. Conversely, the use of mobile devices for this age group has grown by leaps and bounds.
In fact, 50 percent of Millennials are using smartphones during the car-shopping process.
“For many, many years, dealers — in some ways — have been playing catch-up in establishing a Web presence, a Web site that is compatible with a desktop and a laptop. Now it’s time for them to start thinking about establishing a presence on mobile devices,” Helms said.
“And that’s important because you can’t expect a desktop/laptop experience to translate very well on a tablet and even less so on a smartphone. So, one of our key recommendations is that you have to have a mobile strategy and develop mobile-optimized solutions for consumers,” she added. “Simply rendering your desktop/laptop experience on these devices won’t work for consumers.”
Consider this: a brand not having a mobile site will leave a negative brand perception impact on 35 percent of shoppers within the general population, according to AutoTrader. Among Millennials, that number climbs to 59 percent.
There has also been a big jump — both for overall consumers and Gen Y — in the proportion of shoppers using two or more devices to car shop. For the overall population, those figures have climbed from 23 percent to 32 percent in the past year; for Millennials, the numbers have grown from 36 percent to 44 percent.
“The implication of that is, if you’re a consumer and you’re starting your search on one device, and you want to pick it back up later on a completely different device — let’s say, in another location — those experiences are not connected oftentimes,” Helms said. “I think it’s important for advertisers, dealers, third-party websites and manufacturers to enable consistent experiences and connected experiences.
“What I mean by that is, if I start my search, I want the ability to save it and pick it back up on a device later,” she said.e
Stay tuned for the next installment in this series on Millennials, where Auto Remarketing talks with DealerRater chief executive officer Gary Tucker about online reputation and its implications on building relationships with Gen Y shoppers.
Title washing — the process of altering vehicle documents to remove unsavory details about a vehicle’s past from its title — is an increasing threat to the integrity and safety of the used-car industry in the United States.
According to a report released this week from researchers at Carfax, an estimated 800,000 used cars in the U.S. may be plagued by this issue, unbeknownst to their owners.
So what exactly can be covered up by this “title washing” practice?
The answer is daunting: pretty much anything that would probably make the average buyer walk away from a deal. Salvages. Flood damage. Rolled-back and non-functioning odometers. Many of these vehicles are repaired outside of the states where they’re sold, putting potential buyers looking for a deal at risk of financial and bodily harm.
The company claims the states hardest hit are New Jersey, North Carolina, Mississippi, California and Georgia — but that thousands of title washed vehicles could be in every state. More than 500 could be used as taxis.
Larry Gamache, Carfax’s communications director, believes looking into a vehicle’s history is one of the most key safety measures anyone looking to buy can make.
“Our research is clear evidence that title washing continues to fly under the consumer’s radar,” Gamache said. “These cars are sold mainly by perfect strangers who bank on you not taking the proper steps to protect yourself.”
On the dealer side, the responsibility is two-fold. Not only is it a good idea to find ways, such as providing a vehicle-history report, to assure wary used-vehicle buyers and maintain your reputation and integrity to your customer base, but it’s also the best way to protect your investments. Preventing title washed vehicles from being traded in or from going to auction is one key to saving money for everyone involved and potentially protecting the lives of those that drive your business.
For more information on Carfax and its services, visit their site here.
