Americans rank the traditional car buying process about equal to a dental appointment. Dealers have a tainted reputation with stereotypes abounding of the haggling “used car salesman.”
The traditional vehicle buying process is based on customers visiting a dealership. Thus begins a spirited tango purchasing dance with the salesperson, perhaps a dealership manager, the finance department, and some other players in between in an all-day exhausting event.
However, the car buying process doesn’t have to be so painful. In fact, an entire conference dubbed Hackomotive from Edmunds.com exists to address this very issue. Hackomotive is a three-day competition between innovators and entrepreneurs in the car shopping industry held to re-imagine the future of car shopping. Brainstorming sessions result in ways to revamp the traditional car buying process model.
Key findings realized in these conference sessions recommend dealerships anticipate buyers searching online first for cars and reinventing negative images. "Most of the ideas conveyed the theme that car shopping is not just about making a purchase, but about creating a trust-based relationship," explained Edmunds.com CEO Avi Steinlauf.
Building a Trust-Based Relationship in the Modern Buying Process
Today’s car buyer is technologically savvy. The car buying timeline has changed with the saturation of information buyers find online. They’ve already researched the type of car they want to buy for hours online before they even step foot in your dealership.
In fact, according to a study by AutoTrader.com, the average new car shopper who uses the Internet spends 13.75 hours shopping, and used-car shoppers using the Internet spend around 15.25 hours looking for the one they want.
To understand what the modern shopper is looking for in the car buying process, it helps to have a firm grasp on current mobile commerce trends in consumer buying behavior. If you know what kinds of information consumers want to see in vehicle description pages, you can already have that information available to them. By having a transparent vehicle pricing tool available to customers, your sales team can demonstrate inventory expertise while guiding them through the sales process.
One of the most important steps after recognizing mobile trends and having a transparent vehicle pricing tool is to build trust with customers at every point of the buying process. If your inventory is already updated in an easy-to-access format across multiple platforms and devices, you’ve already built trust by giving consumers the information they’re already seeking online.
MAXDigital’s Digital Showroom Embodies the Modern Buying Process
MAXDigital offers solutions that kick the “used car salesman” image to the curb and instead embody the modern buying process. MAXDigital’s Digital Showroom provides platforms for both your sales team and consumers, generated by the MAX Content Generation Engine, that provide a seamless shopping experience by turning your sales team into experts.
And with access on desktop, tablet, and mobile (Android and Apple Devices), you’ll reach customers before they even begin the first search step in the car buying timeline.
Contact us today at 1-(888) 841-0884 for a free product demonstration.
