Car Buying, Selling Becoming an Online Process
26 Oct 2005A growing number of new-car buyers are doing a lot more than online research - everything but test-driving and dropping off the payment - and manufacturers and dealers are now making it much easier for buyers to spend tens of thousands of dollars online, writes the New York Times. Though few buyers complete their transactions entirely online, that number has increased - from an average of 4.9 in June 2002 to 7.5 this June.
According to a NADA survey, 94 percent of dealers in the United States have websites, one-quarter of them having come online in the last three years. Dealers now get nearly 230 monthly online prospects on average - nearly twice the 116 per month in 2004.
Also, other car-related sites are helping customers to better narrow their choices, making the dealers' job easier: Car manufacturers have improved their sites; online car malls like CarsDirect.com, Autobytel.com and Cars.com point prospective buyers toward car dealer sites; and information sites like ConsumerReports .org, Edmunds.com and KelleyBlueBook .com provide massive amounts of information.
Dealers have also adapted by creating internet sales divisions and compensating employees with straight salaries and other incentives, not just commissions; and they have hired people versed in email salesmanship and so reduced lost sales because of employees' attempts to protect commissions.
