Dear Partners,
Recently I attended the NIADA conference in Las Vegas, as well as Digital Dealer 26 in Orlando. At both of these shows, I noticed that the overriding theme was digital retailing.
The way that consumers want to buy cars is changing. To meet their expectations, dealers must provide a digital car-buying experience, both at a dealership level and on the individual level.
85% of consumers said they would be more likely to buy from a dealership that offers at least one component of digital retailing.
Cox Automotive “Future of Digital Retail Study” —January 2018
This requires a digital retailing platform or technology that enables consumers to start and finish the purchase process online, or if they desire, transition seamlessly into the store at some point to take a test drive and finalize the deal.
But having the right technology is just one aspect of the online car-buying experience. As a dealer, if you want to meet the consumers’ expectations, you also need to provide content.
Most dealer websites don’t currently provide the necessary content for in-market car shoppers to conduct research and get answers to their most commonly asked questions.
In a 2017 Capgemini Cars Online study, car shoppers were surveyed about the tools they would like to use in addition to ‘traditional’ tools used for research. The consumers’ responded that their most desired tools were:
- 62% virtual reality presentation
- 43% live chat
- 36% video blogs from customers
- 23% video chat
Additionally, 64% of shoppers who watch online videos to inform their purchase say that new formats like 360° video would convince them to buy a car without a test drive, according to think with Google. In fact, in the past two years watch time of “test drive” videos on YouTube has grown by more than 65%.
It’s pretty clear that video content and digital retailing go
hand-in-hand, but as a dealer, why would you want your customers watching videos on YouTube, when you can so easily provide that same content on your website?
Flick Fusion provides all the tools necessary for the creation of an online, virtual showroom right on a dealership’s website. This allows dealers to provide online car shoppers with their most desired types of video content, including:
These types of video content are proven to not only attract and engage car shoppers, but perhaps most important, keep them on your website. Once a customer clicks on a video link and is taken to YouTube, the dealer has just lost control of that customer’s car-buying experience. YouTube can easily lead the car shopper down a rabbit hole with other recommended videos, including videos from your competition!
As your dealership clients research and implement digital retailing strategies, remind them how important it is to incorporate the use of video content. We’re happy to provide you with video marketing tools that are easy to use and allow dealers and their salespeople to meet the expectations of online car shoppers.
Sincerely,
Director of Partnerships & Business Development
l.reeves@flickfusion.com | Phone (515) 348-8390