Profile of the Online Shopper

Profile of the Online Shopper

During the early years of the Internet, the typical online shopper was young, wealthy, and male, according to E-Commerce Times. Thats all changed. Today, online shoppers are everyone. If they can point and click, theyre shopping for cars on the Internet. So, while theres no longer a typical Internet shopper, online shoppers do share key characteristics:

Internet consumers are motivated by convenience and control.

They are informed. They visit various websites to determine MSRP, invoice price, available promotions and discounts, available features and options, performance parameters, average annual maintenance costs, and other factors. They are often as informed”if not more informed”about the vehicle they are buying as the sales representative selling it.

They are committed to the online shopping experience and demand the same of the dealers with whom they do business. Thus, they expect thoughtful responses to their emails and phone calls, and they expect quick responses with answers to their questions. Unfortunately, they dont always get what they ask for. In fact, online car shoppers who ask for the price of a new vehicle are given this information less than 25 percent of the time, while only 13 percent are given information about the benefits of a particular brand or vehicle, according to one study.

According to the same study, 20 percent of consumers will go somewhere else if they do not receive a response in four hours or less. The average response time is currently over five hours.

Many dealers mistakenly think that online shoppers are visiting dealer site after dealer site trying to find the lowest price possible. While price clearly affects a shoppers final purchase decision and should always be included on your site, there are many other factors that influence online car shoppers buying decisions. These buyers understand that a dealer has to make a fair profit, and they will often pay for convenience and other perks they find valuable in the shopping/buying experience.

This article is adapted from A Dealer Guide to Leveraging the Internet to Drive Sales (BM41), written by Jared Hamilton, founder and CEO of DrivingSales.com. The guide (BM41) is available through NADA Universitys Resource Toolbox.