The question is being asked everyday, "what can make an online automotive company grow day after day and month after month?" To answer this question confidently, I have read numerous articles and statements from major players in the market and I've discovered that using transparent, accurate and up to date data is the key to success.
Why?
1. Significant purchasing decision for consumers: A car is often the second largest purchase an individual will make, second only to his or her home. Traditionally, the process of finding the right car to buy, selecting the right dealer or seller to buy it from, and deciding how much to spend, has been complex and intimidating.
2. Shift from offline to online: Consumers are increasingly using the Internet to search for cars before entering a dealership. According to JD Power & Associates, the average car buyer spends 14 hours researching cars online prior to making a purchase. To respond to this trend, providing users what they are looking for and at the right time is essential.
3. Increasing importance of mobile devices: Consumers are increasingly using their mobile phones to search for vehicles. A 2017 Google study estimates that as much as 71% of a consumer's interactions with dealers, brands, and third-party sites during the car buying process occurred on mobile devices.
Historically, the lack of unbiased, transparent information has made it difficult for consumers to effectively compare vehicles and find the vehicle that best suits their needs. For consumers searching for cars, every car is unique, and it is difficult to aggregate the relevant information of available cars across dealers. Generally, dealers also have had more information about car prices than consumers do, as consumers have had limited resources to determine an appropriate price. Selecting the right dealer has also been challenging for consumers as dealer reputations have historically been based primarily on word of mouth advertising.
If you want to drive success to your online automotive company, provide users with accurate, unbiased, useful and transparent information, but more than anything, help them make the right decision.
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