Over a third of consumers say they would purchase a vehicle online, according to a survey from Adtaxi that provides an in-depth look at ecommerce trends and consumer preferences in the U.S.
The report revealed a growing interest from consumers to take the leap from buying a car at the dealership to purchasing this none-too-small investment through the Internet. This may be due to the added simplicity that the digital realm provides to consumers, as 50 per cent of people surveyed said convenience was the primary reason for them to shop online.
“Automotive dealerships are always on the look-out for the silver bullet that will give an edge over the competition. It’s a bit anti-climactic that success is usually found not through the latest website widget or technology, but instead found by creating a clear plan and working to simplify rather than over-complicate,” Joel Sesco, National Director of Automotive at Adtaxi, told Canadian auto dealer in an email response.
Sesco says that dealers face three universal challenges when it comes to creating a successful digital marketing strategy:
- Accurately pinpointing the ideal audience most receptive to their dealership’s marketing messages;
- Identifying which digital marketing channel is best positioned to reach that sweet-spot audience on an individualized basis;
- Efficiently analyzing the overall performance data of their various digital marketing campaigns quickly enough to identify and implement necessary adjustments for optimal performance.
“As new marketing technologies come into existence, anyone that takes steps towards solving those three challenges in a scalable and automated (or semi-automated) way will have a considerable advantage,” said Sesco.
“As dealerships continue to experiment with completing more of the vehicle purchase online, and consumers become more and more comfortable with online vehicle purchases, the opportunity will exist to identify which marketing efforts are working and which are not with near 100-percent accuracy.”
