The future of Automotive Sales is DIRECT

For car dealerships and OEMs it’s essential to understand the digital customer journey in the Automotive Industry and the shift that’s been happening. It entails the OEMs selling directly to consumers and dealers begin fulfilment or sales agents. In this article we’re explaining the future of Automotive Sales globally, for more in depth conclusions you can download the dedicated ebook at the bottom of this page.

Online showrooms

Due to COVID-19, car dealerships needed to close their showrooms, send their sales teams home and drive sales online – which was a huge turnaround. Online becomes a portal to a showroom. 83% of consumers want to do one or more steps of the purchase process online and 7 out of 10 are more likely to buy from a dealership if they could start the process online.

Before the pandemic, numbers on consumer expectations for online car shopping were already high, but since then digital retail related search terms, such as ‘buy car online’ or ‘remote car service,’ over indexed consistently compared to the same time period pre-pandemic.

Digital shift

Nearly 30% of U.S. new car sales last year were completed online, according to Alan Haig, an automotive retail consultant and president of Haig Partners. Before the pandemic, less than 2% of vehicles were purchased digitally. “This shift to digital retail is positive for dealers who embrace it,” Haig told ABC News. “For those that don’t, they will lose customers and be harmed by the trend.”

While the global COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted nearly every measure of life, the Car Buyer Journey (CBJ) Study suggests the automobile buying process improved during the prolonged downturn. Both new- and used-vehicle buyers in 2020 report the process took less time and was more efficient than before. Overall, buyer satisfaction reached an all-time high in 2020.

Improve your customer experience by digitalisation

By making more steps to the sale available online before customers arrive at the store, dealers can reduce the amount of time spent on the deal at the dealership, thereby positively impacting customer satisfaction. The customer experience is as important as the product and services that your company provides.

Digitalisation is key these days, and it’s forcing companies to change their business models and adapt to the ‘new normal’. The interesting note here is that it’s not the companies who are driving this change, it’s the customer. Today, customers expect relevant content in relation to what they’re doing anytime, anywhere and in the format, and on the device of their choosing. It’s their journey that dictates your strategy. Therefore, there’s only one way to keep up with your customers, and that is to embrace technology and provide an excellent customer experience. Digital first requires you to rethink how you interact with your customers.

Engage with new audiences as they learn about your brand

Whisbi helps companies in the Automotive Industry to address their key challenges and create a differentiated customer experience. The way to engage with new audiences can be done through many channels, but real-time communication should definitely be a part of them. With Whisbi Engage you create top of the funnel engagement with live video broadcast.

Enable your customers to get free advice. Like in a dealership – but from the comfort of their own home. A digital showroom is just like your other physical dealerships with real sales agents. Except that it’s not. It’s much more powerful as it enables your sales agents to attend to numerous online customers in real-time, using conversational tools like real-time video, voice and chat. It’s the latest innovation in digital customer experience, and it works perfectly for the Automotive Industry.

There is so much more to learn about this industry and how digitalisation is changing the future of this specific field. This is why we’ve created the following Automotive Ebook with hands-on tips, solutions and helpful insight information. Download the ebook below:

Marloes van Vliet

Product Marketing Manager