While the term “Digital Retailing” is all the buzz here in 2019, did you know that its origin as it relates to automotive can be traced back to 2012? Over the next couple of years, the earliest digital retailing solutions that rolled out from OEM’s and technology companies alike were really nothing more than fancy lead forms. Back then, digital retailing wasn’t about buying a car online. It was simply a way for car dealers to capture more information from a shopper, but provided very little immediate benefit to the consumer.
In 2015 Online Shopperâ„¢ burst on to the scene promising to not just create more qualified leads for dealers, but also help consumers answer their most important question when shopping for a vehicle, “Can I Afford It?”. In the years that followed, Online Shopperâ„ was improved to deliver an experience that consumers loved, and that dealers could use to drive quality leads and incremental sales with just the flip of a switch.
Starting today, we’re entering a new phase of digital retailing that promises to add new levels of convenience for car shoppers while simultaneously allowing dealerships to take another step toward offering a car buying experience that can mostly be completed online.
MEET ONLINE SHOPPER ELECTRICâ„¢
Online Shopper: Electricâ„¢ is the newest edition of our digital retailing solution that takes the conveniences of the original Online Shopper – now known as Redline – and amps the experience up to drive even more efficiencies for shoppers and dealers alike.
Here’s how Online Shopper: Electricâ„¢ will charge up your website…
Multi-Car Garage
The main reason why consumers love Online Shopperâ„¢ is that they’re able to customize multiple payment scenarios on the vehicle that they’re interested in. With Online Shopper: Electricâ„¢, car shoppers can now customize payment scenarios on multiple vehicles, side by side in their own digital multi-car garage that can be accessed from your website on any device.
This takes the convenience factor to whole a new level as shoppers on your website can now compare multiple vehicles based on any combination of model, trim, lease and finance variables on the individual vehicle or global level.
Having this multi-car garage functionality is crucial because without it it’s akin to having your customers come to the dealership to test drive the first car they’re interest in, sending them home, and then having them come back later to drive the second car they’re interested in. Eventually they’ll test drive them all, but it’s not very efficient.
Say Goodbye to Anonymous Leads
Probably one of the most frustrating problems that exists with traditional lead forms is the fact that shoppers will sometimes provide a phone number or email address that isn’t entirely accurate, making it extra challenging for your team to follow up with.
Online Shopper: Electricâ„¢ has built in some functionality to ensure that when a customer enters their contact info, it’s accurate so your team can follow up with these high quality leads.
In order to access their personal multi-car garage, Online Shopper: Electricâ„¢ sends a user their personal, numeric garage key via text or email. This alone should be enough to ensure that consumers enter their actual contact information. But just incase, we added some redundancy to disallow users from entering a blatantly false phone number like 555-1212 or bogus email like nothanks@no.com.
Either way we have you covered and with Online Shopper: Electric™, leads with bad contact info will become a thing of the past.
Even More Leads From Your Website
In a recent case study we showed how Online Shopper: Redlineâ„¢ increased website leads for our clients by 2-3x compared to their lead volume prior to activating Online Shopperâ„ .
With Online Shopper: Electricâ„¢ we expect to maintain, if not improve, that lead generation rate thanks to the multi-car garage which will encourage more shoppers to include their contact info in return for accessing this powerful shopping tool.
Remember, leads that come from Online Shopperâ„¢ are more detailed, higher intent and faster to close compared to a standard “Get ePrice” or “Schedule Test Drive” CTA.
Continue on any Device, Even an In-Store Kiosk!
In an effort to provide the best user experience possible, folks who use Online Shopper: Electricâ„¢ can access their personal garage from any device, and can even pick up where they left off right inside your dealership via an in-store Kiosk or at your sales consultant’s desk.
This is huge because this seamless online to offline experience allows for a more collaborative discussion between you and the customer. Simply pull up your customer’s digital garage in the dealership, go over the information with them to ensure you’re all on the same page, and then get them out on the road for a test drive that much faster.
Your customers will appreciate the expedited experience, and you’ll have less negotiating to do.
Online Shopper: Electricâ„¢ truly is the evolution of digital retailing. Ready to take it for a spin yourself? Fill out the form below and someone from our team will reach out and schedule a full demo with you.
