Selling a vehicle is a different process than any other purchase. Almost always, it takes a long-term strategy of developing a deal, figuring out what vehicle will work best for a customer’s budget and needs, offering incentives and upgrades, sorting out financing and insurance, and more.
As a manager of a dealership, you know that your sales team has developed and perfected their methods that work wonderfully in the showroom, but how confident are you that the same strategies can be applied to your website?
The Latest E-Commerce Boom
There’s no denying the power of the internet to boost sales in every retail market. In the upcoming year, more than ever, the challenge for every retail business will be to find new and better ways to take advantage of the online sales market. For years, companies that sold smaller products that were easy to sell and easy to ship dominated the online retail landscape. For dealerships, the challenge of taking advantage of the online commerce has been greater than any other market.
What’s Changing for Dealerships Online
With the latest generation in online marketing and sales
software, all of this is changing. If
you aren’t currently following the developments that are now being offered by
companies that create online solutions built specifically for dealerships, then
you should immediately click here to learn more about what’s available on
offer and what developments are in the works.
The History of
Dealership Website Marketing
In the past, auto sellers used their web presence mainly to advertise
inventory and sales events. Later on, better marketing applications started to
allow for more advanced sales analytics and the sales development that led to
an enormous increase in sales in house.
Strategies like better lead generation using online software then led to enormous increases in auto sales that helped to prove the feasibility of the online market for dealerships. Now that even greater gains have been made in recent years, such as combining dealership website apps with social media sales platforms, the potential for complete online sales has been realized like never before.
Specific Applications
One of the
most effective applications that you can add to your dealership
website is an advanced live chat service. With live chat, you website changes
into an active experience for customers, not unlike the environment that they
experience when entering your physical location. Live chat operators can guide
new customers through the process of finding a vehicle that will match their
current needs. They can also answer any questions about inventory or website
navigation that the customer might pose in real time.
This service greatly increases the potential for a working relationship to
build between your company and browsing web traffic, simultaneously increasing
your chances to retain new customers. Live chat can also be used in cooperation
with other online sales apps, such as texting, image and video sharing, as well
as insurance and financing applications, to create an improved all-round
customer experience.
Get ready for the changing world of online retail
in time for 2020 by contacting a sales and marketing specialist to ensure that
your dealership doesn’t get left behind.