Connect Cox Automotive’s full suite of dealership solutions to elevate customer experiences, improve sales, and exceed business goals.
Integrating Dealer.com Websites with VinSolutions CRM allows dealers to capture shopper intent earlier on in the buying journey. This helps to deliver more customized and relevant offers by tracking consumer behavior across Cox Automotive properties.
Dealers using both VinSolutions CRM and Automotive Marketing Platform (AMP) can create highly personalized landing pages that enhance customer engagement and dealership relevance.
The seamless connection between VinSolutions and Dealer.com Digital Retailing streamlines the sales process by providing real-time shopper activity, automated alerts, and uninterrupted deal workflows from online to in-store interactions.
Generate more online leads with exclusive, connected Cox Automotive proprietary data.
Interested in learning more? Download our infographic:
Digital marketing managers and automotive digital marketing managers are constantly juggling numerous strategies to capture the attention of potential car buyers. To ensure your dealership remains competitive, you must adapt to emerging trends that are reshaping how car shoppers interact with brands.
This guide will delve into the latest automotive marketing trends and offer actionable insights on how to leverage these trends effectively. By understanding and implementing these strategies, you can enhance your dealership’s visibility, engagement, and sales performance.
The Importance of Behavioral Data and Audience Targeting
Successful marketing hinges on understanding your audience’s behavior and preferences. Leveraging the intelligence of behavioral data and utilizing audience targeting can significantly increase your marketing efforts’ efficiency. By serving tailored messages to the right audience segments, you can influence car shoppers who are most likely to make a purchase.
Multichannel Experience: Meeting Car Shoppers Where They Are
A recent study by the 2023 Car Buyer Journey, “Digitization of End-to-End Retail,” reveals that 43% of car shoppers prefer a multichannel experience at the dealership, combining online and offline steps. This trend underscores the importance of integrating both digital and physical touchpoints in your marketing strategy. Providing a seamless multichannel experience can enhance customer satisfaction and drive higher conversion rates.
The Cookieless Future: Adapting to Changes in Data Privacy
As data privacy regulations evolve, third-party cookies are set to be phased out by 2025. This shift necessitates a reevaluation of how automotive marketers track and engage with potential buyers. Embracing first-party data and investing in cookieless tracking solutions will become essential to maintaining effective targeting and personalization efforts.
Embracing Online and Offline Blends
The same study indicates that 71% of car buyers opt for a blend of online and offline interactions during their purchasing journey. This trend emphasizes the need for targeted advertising to initiate potential buyers on the path to purchase. By leveraging digital marketing channels to attract and engage customers, you can guide them seamlessly into your dealership’s sales funnel.
Automation: Enhancing Efficiency with Google Ad Buys
Automation is revolutionizing the way businesses manage their marketing campaigns. With Google Ad buys, you can automate various aspects of your advertising strategy, allowing you to reach customers more effectively and drive better results. Automation not only saves time but also ensures that your ads are delivered to the right audience at the right time.
Building a Data-Driven Advertising Strategy with Dealer.com
To stay ahead in the competitive automotive market, partnering with the right digital marketing platform is crucial. Dealer.com offers a comprehensive solution that empowers your dealership to build an effective advertising strategy. Powered by exclusive Cox Automotive data, Dealer.com delivers real results through data-driven insights and personalized marketing efforts.
Power tip: Personalize your car shopping experience! Today’s consumers expect tailored journeys, and failing to deliver can lead to lost sales and unhappy customers. A Cox Automotive study shows that dealerships using personalized marketing see a 12% increase in inventory leads, driving significant revenue gains and stronger customer relationships.
Power tip: Personalization pays off! Consider a dealership that sells 300 cars a month. A 12% lift in leads can result in an additional 12 cars sold each month, adding up to over 140 cars annually. With an average profit of $1,400 per car, this amounts to an extra $196,000 in revenue per year. These figures highlight the substantial financial impact of leveraging personalization in your marketing efforts.
Power Tip: Personalize your website and marketing content! Without personalization, customers may struggle to navigate, leading to frustration, high bounce rates, and longer purchase times. Happy customers are more likely to buy more!
Power Tip: Use Dealer.com to create personalized digital experiences for shoppers! Leverage actionable consumer insights to offer relevant vehicles, incentives, and specials.
Automate to free up resources and focus on building meaningful customer relationships. 🚀Real Results from Personalized Recommendations. Dealerships that implement personalized recommendations through Dealer.com experience impressive results:
12% lift in inventory leads submitted
2-2.5x higher click-through rates
These metrics demonstrate the tangible benefits of adopting a data-driven, personalized marketing strategy.
Embrace Innovation for Competitive Advantage
As the automotive industry continues to evolve, staying ahead of marketing trends is essential for maintaining a competitive edge. By leveraging behavioral data, embracing multichannel experiences, adapting to the cookieless future, and automating your advertising efforts, you can position your dealership for success.
Partnering with Dealer.com provides you with the tools and insights needed to build a data-driven advertising strategy that delivers real results. Don’t let your marketing strategy fall behind—keep up with changing trends and drive your dealership’s growth.
Ready to take your marketing strategy to the next level? Book a demo with us today to learn more about how Dealer.com can help your dealership thrive: https://www.dealer.com/demo/
As a founding member of the Automotive Standards Council (ASC), Cox Automotive is committed to helping set a standard groundwork for the ongoing implementation and adoption of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) into the industry. For the latest updates, additional training material and a network of supporting companies, please visit the Automotive Standards Council website.
With the official retirement of Universal Analytics by Google, all your data should have been successfully migrated from your Google Universal account to Google Analytics 4.
For dealers that have made the transition but are still not sure how to set up their dashboard, we developed a quick reference guide on how to create Custom Dimensions and Metrics for GA4 Properties.
If you would like immediate assistance configuring Custom Dimensions and Metrics for your GA4 property, please contact your Performance Manager or the Dealer.com Technical Support team.
Auto dealers have been quick to jump on advertising opportunities since the first newspaper ad for a car company was published in 1898. Today, your dealership has a wide variety of advertising options, so it can be challenging to build out a digital marketing plan that reliably powers lead generation and improves profit. But although advertising is constantly evolving, it remains extremely valuable because it is:
One of the first touchpoints between your dealership and customers
The way most consumers find your website
The first step into your digital retailing process
Dealership websites are a vital first step to help shoppers navigate your dealership’s inventory, and they also play a role in convincing them they should buy from you rather than a competitor. While a good website is important for getting more quality leads and turning cars on the lot, dealers must take a more holistic approach for the website to be able to do its job. Maximizing sales opportunities requires a broader digital marketing strategy that actively engages the right shoppers at the right time with the right messaging.
KEEPING YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY UP WITH THE CHANGING AUTOMOTIVE MARKET
To reach in-market auto shoppers, it’s important to understand what is driving their decisions throughout the shopping journey. Considerations such as fluctuating interest rates, inflation concerns, inventory shortages, and more, affect what grabs a shopper’s attention. Today’s consumers follow the purchase path in different ways, at different times, and take different steps in a different order. A successful strategy should be firmly centered on meeting consumers where they are in the journey.
There was a time when you could rely on contextual targeting to capture the attention of the right buyer at their most impressionable moment. But now contextual placements have become too broad, generating wasted effort and ad spend through low-value impressions and low engagement.
The most efficient solution is to leverage the intelligence of behavioral data and use audience targeting to serve your message to the shoppers who are most likely to buy.
MODERN SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN CHALLENGES
There are several key reasons that now is the ideal time to work on perfecting your advertising strategy:
Consumers spend more time online. 43% of car shoppers prefer a multichannel experience at the dealership, a mix of steps completed online and offline.1 This presents an opportunity to strategically target shoppers with cars they want to see based on their shopping behaviors. With access to exclusive Cox Automotive data, you can leverage these insights to serve up the exact car consumers are looking for.
The cookieless future is here. In 2025, third-party cookies are finally going away. To effectively market and advertise to car shoppers, it’s now vital to have access to first-party data that allows you to gain insights on your customers.
Digital retailing is the path forward. Advertising can feed the funnel into your dealership’s digital retailing process. With 71% of car buyers opting for a blend of online and offline interactions in their future purchasing journey1, leveraging targeted advertising becomes paramount in initiating potential buyers on the path to making a purchase with your dealership.
Google Ads buys are now more comprehensive. Google PMax is designed to help advertisers reach customers more effectively and drive better results through automation. These ads allow you to promote your inventory to interested and relevant shoppers online by featuring it in the most desirable real estate on Google’s search results page.
So, how do you address these factors to build the right advertising program for your dealership? Dealer.com Advertising works with you to deliver data-driven, intelligent advertising so you can own the moments that matter most for your customers.
We can help you create a superior dealership experience with the right data and the right innovations to reach the right consumer with the right message at precisely the right time.
Here’s what that partnership looks like:
+ 3.5X MORE ADVERTISING LEADS2
An effective advertising strategy requires three things:
The Right Data: In the absence of third-party cookies, you can use our Cox Automotive proprietary data to build audiences based on each buyer’s intent.
The Right Technology: Choose the advertising channels that work best and adjust your strategy in real time. Using our proprietary Advertising Management software, you can identify opportunities for growth and optimization to shift with your market and maximize the impact of your advertising spend.
The Right Expertise: Our highly trained advertising architects will help you achieve your advertising goals. The specialists on this team cover every area of marketing strategy, understand how to leverage the largest first-party data source in the automotive industry, and help you get the most value from your advertising spend.
Dealer.com gives you a data-driven partner that delivers real results, powered by exclusive Cox Automotive data.
+2.7X MORE WEBSITE VISITS2
+3.8X MORE VEHICLE DISPLAY PAGE VIEWS 2
Advertising works best as the centerpiece of your marketing plan. The right advertising program is key to fueling website reach and closing deals.
2023 Car Buyer Journey, Digitization of End-to-End Retail.
Average performance of 391 dealers using paid search and retargeting channels vs. 133 using paid search, display, retargeting, Facebook, and Premium SEO. January – June 2023.
The online shopping landscape has changed. The era of flexible car buying options is here and dealerships must adapt to meet evolving consumer preferences.
Across the internet, today’s online shopping experience allows consumers to effortlessly add groceries to their online carts and pick them up at the store or have them delivered. It’s all about choice and convenience, and increasingly they expect a similar flexible retailing experience when shopping for cars.
As a first step, embracing an omnichannel strategy can help encourage consumers to rethink their car shopping journey.
At Cox, we define omnichannel as not limiting the shopper to choosing an online or offline experience. A consumer can begin their deal online, take it offline, and even go back online again, moving freely between the two to complete their deal.
According to the 2022 Cox Automotive Digitization of End-to-End Retail Study, 92% of shoppers say they will complete their next vehicle purchase entirely online or through a combination of online and in-store.
We see trends toward omnichannel because consumers still want the choice to talk with a person at the dealership to learn some of the cars’ features, do a test drive, and understand their finance options. Regardless of where the purchase starts (online or in-store) or where a deal is completed, retailers need to make the process as efficient, streamlined and fluid as possible.
Our products and solutions at Cox Automotive allow you to offer the flexibility car shoppers expect. Streamlining the online to offline experience will be key, and preparing your dealership should start today.
Implementing Flexible Retailing Experiences
Achieving an effective flexible retailing experience requires careful planning and strategic implementation. Here are some key strategies to consider:
Use digital and AI-powered tools that provide a single view of the customer, predict what they like based on their behaviors, and extend a personalized experience if they transition into the store.
Keep shoppers’ information safe and let them know you take their privacy seriously.
Make shoppers feel more confident by using digital tools in the store. This makes it easier to go over information they’ve already given online and make sure everything is correct.
Tell shoppers to review financing options on your website. They can pick extras and send in their financial details to get a good idea of the total cost, including fees and taxes.
Source: Cox Automotive 2023 Digitization of Car Buying
Ecommerce is an Essential Ingredient
Looking at retail flexibility as a spectrum, shoppers range from wanting to do everything in-store to wanting to do everything online.
True automotive ecommerce is a full end-to-end online experience from vehicle selection through to the purchase and even delivery (read this blog about where we think automotive ecommerce is today.)
The combination of ecommerce—which offers true online checkout—and a flexible shopping experience has created a new model of retail that combines the best of both worlds. In the shift toward ecommerce, it is vital to adapt to online shoppers’ needs, and implementing a flexible retail strategy will increase your chances of success.
Ecommerce, powered by technology, automation, and machine learning, allows a consumer to complete their transaction at their own pace and to provide the relevant information as needed, whether that’s within the next week or the next month.
Dealers who are ready to implement ecommerce today are at the forefront of industry innovation, catering to changing preferences, creating a customer-centric shopping experience, businesses can unlock new potential in retail and gain a competitive edge.
For dealerships who are looking to thrive by offering flexible shopping experiences, an omnichannel approach with the integration of true ecommerce is essential. By partnering with Cox Automotive, dealers can launch advanced functionality to elevate the car buying experience and stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving market.
As a leading provider of digital marketing solutions for the automotive industry, Cox Automotive has been closely watching and keeping our partners apprised of developments that affect their ability to reach consumers and grow their business.
For nearly two years, we have been anticipating a time when consumers’ desire for web browsing privacy – and regulators’ intention to mandate it – would come together to kill the tracking cookie as we’ve known it. With the September 2023 release of Google’s Chrome browser update, we’re seeing that moment inching closer.
Until recently, any website could add a cookie to a user’s browser and track them wherever they went online, storing the information on the site’s server. Often companies would partner to exchange this data to get more insights into a user’s behaviors and preferences. This allowed them to target their marketing more effectively to consumers who had demonstrated their interests.
With the Chrome update, Google now stores user behavior and activity data within the browser where advertisers cannot access it. The Google Chrome developers’ site says it is phasing out support for third-party cookies beginning in mid-2024.
Wondering what this could mean for your business? We addressed some focus areas and most asked questions that Cox is prioritizing to stay abreast of the cookieless future so our dealers can continue having success.
AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION AND ACTIVATION
To address ongoing cookie loss when using third-party pixels, Cox is moving to Server-Side Data connections and APIs. This will allow us to have more durable data signals while remaining privacy compliant. We will also consider Clean Room solutions to provide a secure environment to bring data from different places together for joint analysis. Adhering to privacy parameters and creating the safest place for data sharing and transfer will be extremely important.
For first-party pixels, we’ll continue using Cox Automotive Identity Graph to help us track and use specific IDs or personal consumer information. To maximize this approach, we want to help ensure your dealer websites are focused on collecting identifiable information, like consumer email addresses or logins during browsing sessions.
CAMPAIGN AND CONSUMER ANALYTICS AND TRACKING
Campaign Performance and Tracking
We expect to see fewer conversions being tracked overall. We also expect to see increases in discrepancies from our data verification partners since some data points that are monitored rely on cookies. (e.g., Our verification partner may see the user as being outside their geography when the delivery platform does not.)
Server-side will be able to handle signal resiliency issues for the platforms that have Conversions APIs available (mostly social platforms). For other platforms, curated solutions are in developed.
Consumer Journey Analytics
Some blocking solutions on browsers will strip some of our tracking mechanisms by default. This would impact some reporting elements for dealers. Since the consumer journey will rely more heavily on identifiable information collected during website visits such as email address or logins, it’s more important than ever to focus on first-party data activation. Read this Dealer.com article on how to collect, connect, and activate your first-party data as you prepare for the cookieless future.
Additionally, Chrome released an article in August 2023 about Related Website Sets. This may be a solution to customer journey breakage that relies on first-party cookies.
At Cox, we are committed to helping our dealers throughout the deprecation of third-party cookies. We will continue working on ways to ensure our dealers feel confident with this industry shift and will be there every step of the way to ensure maximum success. We will continue releasing information about the approach we are taking to tackle the future with no third-party cookies.
To compete in today’s challenging automotive retail environment, you deserve a data-driven partner who helps create a successful digital marketing strategy with innovative tools and technology. With the NADA Show 2024 just around the corner, Dealer.com has been working hard to bring you new products and enhancements to the products you know and love.
Bringing new solutions to our dealers is something we strive for every single year. Here’s a sneak peek of what’s NEW being unveiled at this year’s NADA show:
Homepage Design and Configuration: Modernize your website by presenting shoppers with an updated, modern look and feel to create a more effective buying path.
Mobile Lot Capture: A new scanning tool that allows you to take and upload photos of inventory directly from the lot.
Local SEO Packages: Drive your dealership to the top of the search engine results page to drive more traffic to your website.
We’ve also made some meaningful enhancements to our foundational tools this year. By updating your processes to incorporate these capabilities, you’ll get the opportunity to deliver the best possible consumer experiences. Some of the enhanced solutions include:
Kelley Blue Book My Wallet + Accelerate My Deal: Deliver a connected, personalized shopping journey for your consumers that allows them to complete more steps online with our digital retail solutions activated across Autotrader and KBB.com listings and Dealer.com websites.
Simplified Dealer.com Search Results Page (SRP): Prioritize the most relevant data points for shoppers to make it easier for them to find and review search results.
Dealer.com is the only full-service digital marketing partner backed by the power of Cox Automotive—the largest data pool of automotive shopper behaviors in the industry. Our mission is to help dealers create a successful digital marketing strategy, personalize the consumer shopping journey, and maximize marketing ROI.
These new and enhanced technologies can help dealers like you increase your consumer knowledge and sustain an advantage over the competition to win more deals in 2024.
Schedule your demo for an in-depth look at these new solutions only being unveiled at this year’s NADA show.
Listen, I get it! Staying on top of all-things advertising can be a daunting task. This is a fast-moving space that seemingly evolves daily. From Google rolling out new campaign-types each quarter, like pMax+, to Meta offering verified business checkmarks that help customers feel confident they’re dealing with a legit brand, all these changes affect your advertising in very real ways. We constantly see new advertising capabilities surface that can help dealers reach their customers in what can feel like an endless space.
However, taking your advertising to the next level does not have to be a massive, time-consuming evolution. It is worth remembering that there is no such thing as “perfection” in this sometimes-confusing space – that is an illusion – we aim for progress!
Something I’ve learned in my years as Director of Advertising at Dealer.com is that many dealers are only on the cusp of what their advertising strategy can do. Excuse me for taking advantage of a few overused clichés, but there is almost certainly some low-hanging fruit that could mean more traffic on your website and your showroom floor. I’m not talking about reinventing the wheel here or buying a whole social media platform just to change the name to a single letter for the sake of headlines.
A stale strategy is paramount to failure. But there are steps you can take to beef up your advertising strategy, small things that we can do today can have an impact.
As we have known for decades, most organisms will grow to the size of their environment, reaching out towards the limits of their domain and then slowing their expansive growth at the edges, becoming rigid – a marketing campaign is no different. Like most successful species, innovative advertising strategies need to be elastic, have room to flex, and be ready to push your boundaries with a diversified media plan.
Allocating just 8-12% of your monthly advertising budget to evolving your marketing and communications channels can reveal a lot about the topography of your space. You’ll get a better view of what works for you – and what doesn’t – and how much room you have to grow. Try something new for 45 to 60 days, assess the results, and pivot accordingly. Avenues that you wrote off a few years ago may prove fruitful, or perhaps a channel you hadn’t considered is now blowing up because of technological strides in targeting or audience capabilities.
While doing channel discovery testing (which is distinctly different than traditional A/B asset testing) it is important to note that what works for some advertisers doesn’t always work for everyone. And what worked in the past won’t always work in the future! So many external factors affect the market and buzzy trends tend to capture industry headlines. But continued and repeated channel testing can often lead to breakthroughs, even on a seasonal basis.
Why are you not using data?
In today’s ecosystem, the key to staying in front of high-value car shoppers is with first-party data and audience targeting is the keystone. First-party data allow you to:
Predict Auto Shopper and Consumer Behaviors
Gain Audience Insights
Personalize Content and Advertisements
Define and Map Out the Customer Journey
First-party data also gives you valuable insights into audience demographics, product-interest engagement metrics, lease or financing options, and service specials, just to name a few. This data also informs us on what customer behaviors are prevalent within an individual’s web activity, which gives you the ability to not only understand more about your consumer but have a clearer picture of how you can effectively reach them at the right time. These are insights that third-party cookies or purchased list data just can’t compete with.
How many of you are using your own data?
There are three areas that immediately come to mind when thinking about how to activate the first-party data that you probably already have at your dealership, information you’ve been collecting since the first day you opened your doors.
Your CRM – This is direct access to your customers’ behavior and can help you with lead management and marketing. Your CRM can be a treasure trove of information on your customers that you can harness to get your message in front of the right people.
Your Website – Uncover the pages that shoppers have visited on your website, what specific offerings or vehicles they’ve looked at, when they signed up for email specials or price alert notifications, or any of the other ways they’ve engaged with your site.
Your Email Engagement Strategy – Your consumer emails give you insights into what your target audience engages with. You’d be shocked if I told you most dealers don’t focus on analyzing and activating these insights. You can have a clear picture of what that consumer is interested in so you can use it to tailor your marketing to them and create those critical personalized experiences.
If you’re already advertising with Cox then you have access to our huge dataset, hyper IP targeting, and cookie-less household addresses. But setting aside just an hour per month to format and upload the info you already have, which we layer onto our own data, can help give a more accurate picture of your customer’s path to purchase, and that’s something we can really use!
We live in a visual world, now more than ever.
You heard about Barbenheimer, right?
Here’s a secret; every agency uses the same providers. Google, Facebook, Instagram, CTV/OTT, etc. are essentially the same platform no matter who is at the wheel. What sets agencies apart is their data – which we talked about above – and the ability to manage creative, especially when it comes to visual mediums like CTV/OTT and Display ads, and creative collaboration is a big part of any successful equation. Fresh, professional-looking creative can make or break the success of a campaign.
One thing we’ve seen over the years is that, despite best intentions, visual assets often become an afterthought for many clients. The focus of strategy discussions invariably drifts to campaign budget allocations, search ad copy, or keywords, but these things are slowly disappearing as our world increasingly becomes more bite-sized and visually oriented. Google’s Performance Max campaign type relies heavily on custom static creative and video messaging, as does CTV/OTT, and Cox’s proprietary audience-targeted display and dynamic remarketing.
Evergreen Visual Assets – In this new world, it has become imperative that dealers have evergreen assets that act as an anchor for these newer, visually engaging channels. Crafting an overarching message about your business, that speaks to the customer not about individual products but branding of the buying process, must be the core of these campaigns. From there, we can build on the message for more seasonal messaging that is more surgical in nature; monthly specials, limited-time deals, or rare inventory, to name just a handful.
Whether you supply your own custom assets or have our Content and Creative teams build them out, it is important not to let this slip through the cracks.
Build on momentum. Finding what works for your business can be uniquely individual. We can analyze broad consumer data to get the broad strokes, but identifying what has worked for your dealership, in your market, is the key to unlocking the inertia within the data. Using the Email Engagement Strategy above as an example, we can see what types of imagery and verbiage worked well to guide our digital strategy. Did people respond to a specific deal or phrasing, did they respond to a specific product image or color, or is the market culture focused on a specific topic that is locally relevant?
Our Barbie meme above show just how much outside “momentum” can affect outcomes.
With a little coordination, the momentum you get from a well-crafted marketing blast, physical mailer, or even signage can all be reproduced in your digital campaigns, especially as the industry moves quickly towards a more-visual mindset.
At the end of the day, though, the best way to find success is to test, fail, and test again. And make no mistake, just because an idea isn’t a homerun this time doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it! Frequent testing and refinement, combined with continually evolving audience data, is the new normal for digital advertising.
Channel Intelligence uses Cox Automotive’s vast consumer dataset to provide tailored recommendations for automotive advertising to targeted audiences.
How does Channel Intelligence work?
By analyzing consumer behaviors, our advanced machine-learning algorithm identifies the most effective advertising channels. This personalized approach optimizes channel performance, resulting in more leads and cost efficiencies. By reallocating advertising funds based on recommendations, businesses can maximize marketing efforts and achieve better results, reducing the need for ineffective strategies.
Interested in learning more? Have a look at our Channel Intelligence infographic:
Having a digital presence as well as online capabilities is something every auto dealer needs in order to do business in today’s times. However, it’s not just a Field of Dreams scenario – if you build it, they will come. Today’s consumers have specific wants, needs and preferences in how they can purchase cars, and it’s reshaping the process for consumers, dealers and the industry alike on a whole.
In order to plan for the road forward, successful dealers know mid-year is the perfect time to take a look at both their current business and marketing strategies, as well as map out how they plan to step into and bridge into the eCommerce future that is already knocking on their front door.
To do this, it’s important to understand where consumers are, where they’re heading, and what your business should be moving toward for the road forward.
Consumer needs and preferences are reshaping the purchase process
When thinking about today’s consumer, it’s important to remember there’s been an evolution in the way they research, shop, and purchase cars. Especially over the last few years. In-market auto shoppers have new and different considerations during the shopping journey, and you must have new and different ways of strategizing and running your business than you did in years past.
A successful strategy should be firmly centered on meeting consumers where they are. No longer a linear path, consumers follow the purchase path in different ways, at different times, and take different steps in a different order.
But by focusing on personalization and offering a frictionless purchase path that both aligns with their needs while simultaneously overcoming their pain points, you’ll still arrive at the end goal of making the sale and giving your customer the experience, they desire. Staying in front of them, no matter where they’re at in the process, is key.
With so many different types of shoppers that your dealership comes across online, it’s important to take a step back and do a deeper dive into who those customers are, what their pain points are, and how you can offer solutions to not only capture their attention, but also gain their trust and business.
Cox Automotive’s recent Car Buyer Journey Study identified five (5) segments of consumers, and the two (2) categories that they fall in – one shrinking in the market and one growing.
Growing Segments:
Comprised of two different segments, the growing category includes Efficient Independents and Guided Innovators. Efficient Independents comprise roughly 18% of today’s market, and they’re mostly Gen X’s (1965-1980) and Millennials (1981-1996). The largest sector is the Guided Innovator. They make up a quarter of in-market auto shoppers. They’re the youngest – being comprised mostly of Gen Z (1997-2012) and Millennials.
Both growing segments prefer to buy online – with 75% of them saying within the next 5 years they would buy entirely online and currently complete 10 out of 13 purchase process steps online.
Shrinking Segments: It’s also important to note that the three (3) other segments found in the shrinking category are more likely to still buy in-person, however they still take some steps online during the purchase process. The Researchers, Traditionalists and Resisters prefer a process they are familiar with and that’s worked for them previously, that’s very straightforward and simple. These shoppers typically only complete 4 out of 13 shopping steps online.
So, what are the opportunities here for you? We can see how consumers want to do business online, but it’s important to remember it’s still new for them. Focus on educating them and bringing them along the purchase path with you. Your business and marketing strategy should be dialed into those growing segments. They’re online, and in our “Amazon world” they’re open to or moving toward buying high ticket items online, like cars, predominately online both now as well as in the very near future.
Advantages to stair stepping your digital retailing tools into eCommerce
Not every in-market auto shopper wants the same things from their online experience, but one thing they all do want is options. Our research shows that consumers don’t want to follow a prescribed sales process. In fact, 9 of 10 consumers prefer a flexible, personalized car buying experience.
With a complete full service-connected digital retailing experience, like that provided by Cox Automotive, you can give them just that.
Unlike digital retailing, eCommerce directs customers to complete the purchase through an online store.
When it comes to promoting and marketing digital retailing and eCommerce, there are several different strategies that businesses can use.
Digital Retailing Strategy:
It’s important to focus on creating a user-friendly experience for customers when it comes to digital retailing. This includes optimizing your website or mobile app for search engines, ensuring that customer service is top-notch, and using targeted advertising to reach potential customers. You also want to give shoppers the tools to explore the information they are comfortable researching or calculating on their own (inventory, trade-in values, financing terms/payments, F&I products) and make it easy for them to move and bridge the process to the dealership when they’re ready. Being able to easily pick up where they left off will increase their confidence, satisfaction and willingness to do business with you.
eCommerce Strategy:
Businesses should focus on creating a visually appealing online store that’s easy to navigate as they shift toward the full eCommerce experience. Other strategies to consider include using social media to reach customers, running targeted ads, and optimizing content for SEO. Additionally, businesses should consider using customer relationship management (CRM) software to store customer data and track customer activity. Everything from the car, to add-ons, to financing, to delivery and so on should be connected and seamlessly lead into each other.
Overall, digital retailing and eCommerce are two very different forms of retailing. However, both can be successful if dealerships take the time to properly promote, market, and educate the consumer on them and how their business integrates them. By taking advantage of strategies such as SEO optimization, targeted advertising, and actively using the many features of CRM software, dealerships can maximize their chances of success for their business in both digital retailing and eCommerce.
Is automotive eCommerce the way of the future?
Automotive eCommerce is becoming more and more popular as a way of retailing because it’s all about convenience. With eCommerce, customers have access to a much wider selection of vehicles and access new markets than they normally would. Additionally, they can browse through different models and features at their own pace and make informed decisions before making a purchase.
Today’s consumers both want and expect a flexible, personalized car buying experience on their timeline. And eCommerce provides exactly that.
What can you do now to prepare for the automotive eCommerce revolution?
In the beginning as you work step-by-step from having a few digital retailing solutions toward being fully eCommerce enabled, it’s essential to have a strong online presence. This may sound easy, but it involves more than you may think, and it’s built brick by brick, step by step.
Sure, this strategy includes setting up a high functioning easy-to-navigate website, creating a social media presence, and using SEO and PPC, but it also includes building strategies around integrating eCommerce technology into your business plan and timeline as it is adopted within your business and how you’ll market it. When you plan for the shift, it will make it easier for you to track customer preferences and trends if you make it possible for your customers to browse and buy vehicles directly from your site.
For the road forward
The automotive industry is on the cusp of a revolution, and working toward stair stepping your digital retailing into eCommerce is at the forefront of this change. By creating an online presence and integrating eCommerce technology into your business model, then supporting it with a thought-out marketing and consumer educational plan, you can ensure that you’re prepared for the future of the automotive industry.
Reshaping is and will continue to happen to the auto purchase process. And as times and consumer preferences change, so must your business plans and strategy. When you leverage the power of mixing, matching and modernizing your digital retailing toward full eCommerce capabilities, you’ll not only reach more customers and streamline operations, but you’ll also have the ability to unlock the potential for your business’s future success.
Want to hear all the ways to fully activate your first party data to plan for a more successful road forward? Catch the replay of a unique webinar opportunity with Automotive News hosted by Jade Terreberry and Noah Lee. They share examples of actions you should take now, and outline strategies successful dealerships and OEMs are implementing to make the most of your marketing efforts and dollars.
