The future of car dealers selling cars online

[admin]

On the anniversary post titled "But I Just Want to Sell Cars Online!" we shared a recent conversation with Tom Gill of Tom Gill Chevrolet and his thoughts on car dealer shopping cart ecommerce, dealers with a true click and mortar capability, his reactions to Lithia and AutoNation announcing their own buy direct capabilities, and more.

So what do you think?

• Is the future of car dealers selling cars online going to become shopping cart ecommerce based?
• Is it going to remain mired in the research online, buy offline model that is prevalent today?
• Is it going to become a situation where third parties continue to dominate the car buying public's awareness and interest, then sell that in the form of leads to car dealers?
• Are broker-like services such as ZAG and CarsDirect going to play a significant role in the market?
• As a car dealer or manufacturer, how do you want it to be?

Post your thoughts and comment by using the reply function of this forum.

[yhurg]

So how many years has it been now since the launch of Ai?

I am encouraged at what I see today with dealers. The "lead generation" mindset is becoming old school and dealers are re-evaluating the relational benefits that can be part of their Internet Marketing Strategy.

While performing the actual purchase of vehicles on the Web will become increasingly more commonplace in the dealer community, so too will all the accolades that come with it. This includes things such as online brand marketing and reputation management during the pre-sale, service incentives and possibly even driver rewards programs, along with the ongoing development of relationships with customers through things such as newsletters, blog marketing, and social media marketing.

A year ago, these terms were not even widely used enough to be considered buzz words. Today they are quickly becoming marketing concepts that providers are scurrying to put some teeth behind. Not east, but interesting to see it all unfold.   

[DWHonda]

•   Is it going to become a situation where third parties continue to dominate the car buying public's awareness and interest, and then sell that in the form of leads to car dealers?
The current system of lead generation from the Internet shopper to the dealer is not meeting the true interest of all parties involved today.  The Internet shopper in on line to gather information, select a few makes and models that would meet their desire and then have them submit their personal contact information in order to get  a price.

The current lead generators want to maximize the number of leads, customer contact information, in order to sell them to the dealers.  The more leads the more profit providing the dealers are willing to purchase them.  As a matter of fact one customer contact information lead is sold to an average of seven different dealers.

The dealer thought that if we could track our advertising dollars in order to get a prospective buyer that was much more effective than traditional advertising.  The more leads they buy the more cars they will sell and the better their chance of keeping their competitors from selling them.


Given all three of these positions there is one underlining problem.  Quantity of leads is top priority of the lead generators, not quality of leads. More leads do not mean more buyers. 

Lead generators want to maximize their profits thus increase the volume of leads in any way they can.  They have solicited customer contact information that may not be purchasing a vehicle.  Customers that wanted to avoid in-dealership contact and pressure to buy have gone on-line to get a price quote.  This now results in five to seven dealership now contacting them at home or work and not necessarily getting any price.  The dealer is paying good money for a lead of very low quality. We begin to look at the actual costs associated with responding to multiple leads to produce very low closing ratios.


The submission of a price quote does not mean the consumer is a serious buyer.  To validate this point take a look at the number of bad phone numbers and bad email address submitted that you just paid for.

The current system doesn’t earn the consumer’s trust, nor does it make them more likely to purchase a vehicle from you. It does not enhance the buyer’s experience.

How do we address these issues?  Hold the lead generators and provider accountable.
These web sites that entice the consumers to submit their personal information without setting the consumer up to be a likely buyer need to be accountable for the quality of the leads we are buying. We as dealers need to address the increasing costs associated in handling these leads correctly, lower closing ratios and diminishing consumer satisfaction.

Dealers need to take a pro-active roll in marketing and branding their own dealership web sites in a manner the consumer that is willing to divulge their information.  There is no magic dust that will make this happen overnight.  It takes persistence, commitment, and focus to be successful.  The lead providers have addressed a void on the Internet.  Dealers were reluctant to jump into the Internet and sat on the fence.  The competition, 3rd party lead generators, jumped in with both feet and has a very strong competitive advantage over us dealers.  Our future dependency on this drug needs to stop now.  We need to just say no and get in the game.

[mera]

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[renuka]

I believe the instincts of women are much better than those of men. Women can see through a salesperson who is patronizing them much quicker than men can. And luckily, there are enough tools out there on the Internet that women can win the battle of control. The battle is won when the consumer, no matter what gender, has enough knowledge that they are aware when they are told something that is not in their best interest.


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[janu]

ASC Cart is one of the most highly developed and feature rich shopping carts on the market today. Ambitious Web Services is constantly adding additional features and improving existing ones so contact us if you don't see a feature you need. Since the shopping cart was developed in 2000, Ambitious Web Services has continued to add features to enrich both the display and administration areas.


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[rajiv123]

Is it going to become a situation where third parties continue to dominate the car buying public's awareness and interest, and then sell that in the form of leads to car dealers?
The current system of lead generation from the Internet shopper to the dealer is not meeting the true interest of all parties involved today.  The Internet shopper in on line to gather information, select a few makes and models that would meet their desire and then have them submit their personal contact information in order to get  a price.

The current lead generators want to maximize the number of leads, customer contact information, in order to sell them to the dealers.  The more leads the more profit providing the dealers are willing to purchase them.  As a matter of fact one customer contact information lead is sold to an average of seven different dealers.

The dealer thought that if we could track our advertising dollars in order to get a prospective buyer that was much more effective than traditional advertising.  The more leads they buy the more cars they will sell and the better their chance of keeping their competitors from selling them.


Given all three of these positions there is one underlining problem.  Quantity of leads is top priority of the lead generators, not quality of leads. More leads do not mean more buyers.

Lead generators want to maximize their profits thus increase the volume of leads in any way they can.  They have solicited customer contact information that may not be purchasing a vehicle.  Customers that wanted to avoid in-dealership contact and pressure to buy have gone on-line to get a price quote.  This now results in five to seven dealership now contacting them at home or work and not necessarily getting any price.  The dealer is paying good money for a lead of very low quality. We begin to look at the actual costs associated with responding to multiple leads to produce very low closing ratios




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[nikkil]

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[vedha]

“What we like about Ai-Dealer's shopping cart for vehicles is the level of engagement with consumers that it provides. We can tell exactly how serious an online shopper is by how much information they obtain in the cart. Unlike chasing 3rd party Internet leads, the non-serious buyers self-serve themselves. We can now better dedicate our highly trained selling professionals’ effort to those consumers who are truly in the car-buying mindset.


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[priya]

Ai-Dealer's founder and CEO, Brian E. Hoecht, says "Using the shopping cart, consumers get to build their own car deal. They get an accurate selling price and monthly payment. Their ability to self-serve the whole transaction eliminates much of the angst associated with the current alternatives (leads and showroom visits) when shopping for a car. Online consumers really enjoy being able to shop and not just inquire before they have to talk to a salesperson or go in to a dealership. Which is the odd part; once they no longer have to go the dealership for a sales consultation, experience shows that they want to because trust has been established."

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[nandu]

Dealers are being forced to compete not only with each other online but also lead generation sites, affiliate sites, Tier II Regional Marketing and Tier I OEM marketing.  This creates a virtual battle field for them to navigate especially when they are forced to make decisions about things they do not understand such as search engine optimization.  While in principal it is easy to understand even for the non tech savvy person, in about 30 minutes I could have someone that cannot check their email have a decent grasp of what it is.  It is the methods touted as gospel that makes the mine field tougher to navigate.


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[rajiv123]

So how many years has it been now since the launch of Ai?

I am encouraged at what I see today with dealers. The "lead generation" mindset is becoming old school and dealers are re-evaluating the relational benefits that can be part of their Internet Marketing Strategy.

While performing the actual purchase of vehicles on the Web will become increasingly more commonplace in the dealer community, so too will all the accolades that come with it. This includes things such as online brand marketing and reputation management during the pre-sale, service incentives and possibly even driver rewards programs, along with the ongoing development of relationships with customers through things such as newsletters, blog marketing, and social media marketing.

A year ago, these terms were not even widely used enough to be considered buzz words. Today they are quickly becoming marketing concepts that providers are scurrying to put some teeth behind. Not east, but interesting to see it all unfold.   



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