While other businesses panic about webroomers, yours is sitting pretty. Or is it? Check out these four tips on how to cater to the needs of webroomers, your most common type of customer.
86% of all consumers research a car online before setting foot inside a dealership. In other corners of retail, this is a phenomenon known as webrooming, and it is tying business owners in knots. Good news, car dealers; this is your business model, and rather than trying to avoid it, you should be leaning in to give webroomers what they want.
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1. The downside of webrooming
If you’re in the market for, say, a new coffeemaker, you might do a bit of research online to comparison shop your offers. In the end, you might ignore all the businesses whose sites you visited and instead choose to patronize a local brick-and-mortar outfit that offers the experience you want. This is the negative side of webrooming, at least from the perspective of those website owners. For automotive retailing, any deal offered is on a specific vehicle that a customer will want to test drive, which in effect eliminates the negative aspects of webrooming. So let’s get to the good part.
2. Your Vehicle Description Pages are key
Catering to webroomers starts with your VDPs. Your online inventory should be kept as accurate as possible, updating as soon as a new vehicle comes in or an existing vehicle is sold. Visitors to your site should know exactly what their options are, in as much detail as possible. Copious pictures of both interior and exterior are required. For a good example, check out some of DealerOn’s sample pages.
Your online inventory should be kept as accurate as possible, updating as soon as a new vehicle comes in or an existing vehicle is sold.
3. Specials are front and center
Special offers associated with a specific vehicle should be easily visible when a webroomer browses your inventory. Specials do take a lot of time to generate if you’re not availing yourself of DealerOn’s revolutionary special-generating program Symphony, but they are well worth your time. A good enough special can turn a lukewarm response into a lead.
4. Customers should know the cost
The final cost of a car is up to so many different factors it’s difficult to know what it will be. Even a total price isn’t necessarily as helpful, as a car’s true cost to a family budget is found in its monthly payment. DealerOn has APEX, a new product that allows a customer to calculate an accurate monthly price on a vehicle. It’s a wonderful way for visitors to your site to know exactly what they will be paying.
Webroomers want to know everything they can before leaving the house to make a purchase. As this has become the preferred model for automotive retailing, you are no doubt experienced with the phenomenon. If you’re already with DealerOn, you don’t have to worry about any of this. And if you’re not… maybe you should be.
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