Auto dealerships need a compelling digital buying journey, according to new data from OSF Digital

This Latest Report Encourages Car Dealers to Optimize Their Websites to Increase Sales

QUEBEC CITY, January 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ – Digital OSFa leading provider of digital transformation services to businesses worldwide, has released a new report titled: The 2022 OSF Digital US Auto Dealership Benchmark Study. The report reveals that consumers want to conduct online car searches to gain direct visibility into specific dealership inventory. It also indicates that consumers want the ability to request an appointment to get a quote or book a test drive, and they want access to related product marketplaces to help streamline their busy lives. Despite this need, many US auto dealerships are falling behind and failing to provide tactical, tangible, and pragmatic solutions online to engage customers. Download and read the full benchmark report here.

“Customers are digital-first and car dealerships need effective digital transformation,” said Gerard (Gerry) Szatvanyi, CEO of OSF Digital. “Car buyers want consistency and speed. The good news is that dealerships can now eliminate many of the consumer pain points they’ve heard about for decades by providing an online portal to bring data together in one one place, which streamlines the process to help serve customers and drive sales.”

The State of Online Car Dealerships – Consumers Prefer Digital:

The global pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of the automotive shopping journey for consumers. The report says U.S. dealerships need to deliver a compelling digital buying journey to meet the expectations of modern customers, as 95% of vehicle shoppers use digital information sources and 83% of consumers want to shop online to save time before buying a car. Other key findings include:

• Automotive consumers visit an average of 4.2 websites in their buying process across multiple devices throughout their buying journey
• More than 60% of auto consumers said they visited a dealership or dealer website after watching a video of a vehicle they were considering
• 79% of dealerships lack the essential sales driver: the search functionality that lets consumers know if a particular dealership has the car they want in their inventory
• Only 5.5% of all dealerships had a 360-degree viewing feature, allowing buyers to view a vehicle from all angles,
• The prevalence of website capabilities impacts automotive sales at dealerships and the ease of finding those web capabilities

Business challenges

The report also reveals that lack of IT support is a common obstacle for dealerships. With a growth mindset, dealers can find an easy-to-use e-commerce implementation partner ready-to-use e-commerce solutions with a managed service option to ensure they don’t run out or exhaust their resources. As dealerships rethink what a modern selling experience should include, the right e-commerce platform can unify data, simplify the product discovery journey, and offer self-service features to resell a car, schedule a test drive or pay a visit to the dealership.

Growth Opportunities

The study shows that an effective dealer website is essential to sales growth. The report shows how a dealership’s website serves as an important information portal that consumers can evaluate during their selection process, helping them narrow down their considerations and identify key vehicle features and benefits. Well-designed aspects of website appearance, navigation, and speed improve a shopper’s ability to locate content, thereby driving traffic to showrooms. The report argues that these aspects will continue to be necessary for dealerships to win in the overall strategy of reaching customers on multiple device types, including tablets and smartphones.

Research Methodology

the OSF Digital 2022 US Auto Dealership E-Commerce Benchmarking Study used a secret shopper observation methodology by examining 488 individual auto dealership websites from the top 150 US dealer groups named by Automotive News Magazine in 2020, in addition to research on each of the top 150 US dealerships. The goal was to understand the presence of capabilities/features and the ease of finding these features for the consumer. The research targeted a wide geographic coverage of United States and the data was collected between July 27, 2021and August 17, 2021and the research reflects the offers presented by the dealers in the study on their websites.

About OSF Digital
OSF Digital is a global commerce and digital transformation leader with expertise in connecting technology and strategy to achieve business goals. With expert status in B2C and B2B commerce and multiple Salesforce awards for multi-cloud innovation, OSF Digital seamlessly guides businesses through their digital transformation journey. With clients in various industries around the world, OSF Digital offers personal attention and the highest level of connection with a local presence everywhere. North America, Latin America, APAC and EMEA. For more information about OSF Digital, visit: osf.digital.

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SOURCEOSF Digital