[RahulNagaraj]

A new study shows, with more customers looking online for their next car buying experience, how even a few words online can decide the fate of a sale for car dealers.



Shift Digital's Winning Strategies for Converting Shoppers to Buyers, states that a car dealer's website shouldn't list more than 4 Call-to-Action (CTA) on their webpage, which shows the vehicle details. Shift Digital also mentioned three key pieces of information which shoppers are most interested in: Price, payment & Trade-in value.



Shift Digital also mentioned how certain CTA words can directly decrease the conversion rate. For example, using "Check Availability" reduced the conversion rate by an average of 18%, while having a "Buy" CTA decreased the conversion rate by 23% - stating it as "overly forceful language", which dealers are encouraged to avoid.

Dan Reynolds, head of advanced analytics at Shift Digital, stated that the key is to keep customers' end goal in mind and make the call-outs in such a way that buyers can easily make an informed decision. Hence, starting with "Schedule a Test Drive" instead of something with the word "buy" is preferred.



Reynolds also stated that optimising a website for mobile phones is key, as most customers use it as a go-to research tool. This combined with a "Text Us" option, could help increase the conversion rate by 28%.

However, even though a good website will bring in more clicks, it might not necessarily convert to more sales. The study showed that many factors outside of the consumer's control like inflation, interest rates and unpredictable inventories, prevented many online enquiries to turn into sales.

Source: Shift Digital via CarScoops

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[greenhorn]

Car dealership websites play a minor journey in the overall path to purchase. the value that a dealership plays is to be a local touchpoint, which they serve best physically. If you need a digital touch point, the manufacturer website and third party aggregators will always have a superior experience because that's their main job.

Whatever these guys say, no dealer worth his salt will expose his pricing online, so these tools will ultimately not be of much value, unless this is some sort of digital first retailer (such as carvana, or tesla). For a Brick and mortar retailer, none of these make much sense because they ask for too much to be given up from them (pricing transparency etc) and the incremental online sales will not offset the risks (people using this to price match, competitors complaining about too low pricing etc).

It will also validate that digital first is a viable channel, and then it makes them vulnerable to the existing digital players - so they will fight the adoption of this channel tooth and nail.