By Melanie Borden, VP of Marketing, Celebrity Motor Cars
Last month kicked off a series of articles I’m writing on digital retailing, and now that we’ve defined what digital retailing is, we’ll cover some more ground, but this time, focusing on the online experience versus in-store experience.
Is it the cheaper cost of the vehicle’s monthly payment or is it the incredible experience the customer has while in-store that shoppers are looking for? And does this vary from store to store, based on brand, local market, etc.? Over the last few months, I have been determining if digital retailing works for Celebrity Motor Cars select dealerships that are presently “trying it out.” Celebrity Motor Cars, if you’re not familiar, is all high-line franchises in New Jersey and New York, Lexus, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo. I believe transparency in pricing and ability to work your own deal is agnostic regardless of brand.
Two of the five dealerships I oversee marketing for decided to dip their toe into the digital retailing pool. This change came based on some additional offerings our OEM programs had in 2019. Generally speaking, many of the manufacturer-endorsed digital marketing programs are now promoting digital retailing as part of the overall go-to-market strategy, and in some cases, providing additional regional subvention to the dealers as an incentive for making a change.
Just as I was writing this, an article from Automotive News was posted, which offered insight on how younger buyers still want the dealership and prefer to have the in-store experience, versus doing the entire purchase online.
The article’s core context came from Randy Berlin, global director of dealer services at Urban Science. It focused on a recent study by Urban Science with several eye-opening findings. This came as somewhat of a surprise to me as a lot of the data in recent years has been telling us that younger generations want to “do it all online” and are visiting less dealerships. This resonated with me and has helped me understand where we’re at as an industry with shopping online for cars.
According to the Urban Science report:
- The youngest shoppers (Gen Z and younger millennials) are actively shopping 3.8 stores on average.
- The “older” millennials visit 2.6 dealerships
- Generation X shoppers visit 2.4 dealerships.
- Baby boomers visit 2.1 dealerships.
Last July, I attended a Lexus Eastern Area marketing meeting, which Google presented at and also had some statistics similar to Urban Science. Based on their data, where the average customer is now shopping over three dealers, opposed to what we’ve been hearing the last few years. Regarding a test drive of the vehicle, Urban Science reported 83 percent of consumers said they would never buy a vehicle before sitting behind the wheel.
Based on this information, our customers want transparency, and they want as much information as possible to aid them in their shopping experience to make the best decision for them and/or their family. Once they have the information to make an informed decision, and they select the dealer who they feel their getting the right experience from, they move forward with the purchasing process in-store.
This brings me to the top-of-mind question: If you have an online experience providing transparency and competitive pricing, how do you ensure the customer(s) will still want to come into your dealership?
The answer is you implement a seamless process in store, incorporating the elements from digital retailing online, interwoven into your sales process. This means training and adjusting your process to adapt and give your customers what they want, which is familiarity to what they used online, as well as transparency and a positive experience from start to finish. You must have an exceptional, seamless process from online to in-store, for it to not only work for not, but most importantly, your customers.
About the Author
Melanie Borden, a Fashion Institute of Technology graduate, has spent the majority of her 14+ year marketing career in the automotive tech industry. Melanie has worked in various atmospheres from social media startups to a public tech company in consulting, marketing, and business development roles. Presently, she is the VP of marketing for Tom Maoli’s Celebrity Motor Cars auto group where she develops and implements all facets of the marketing strategy and built the in-house advertising agency.