Zero emission vehicle sales - the role of data and multi-channel communication

Following on from our last Auto Talk article, designed to provide support to retailers focus on the sales process and creating an enquiry management advantage, this final article in the series will consider the role of data and multi-channel communication.

March saw an impressive 10.4% rise in new car registrations overall. However, OEMs and retailers focused on the Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEV) Mandate (which requires 22% of all new cars registered this year to have zero emissions) may be concerned that Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) market share fell to 15.2%.

Encouraging more people to buy a BEV will be an immediate issue for many across the industry. 

Tracking lead management

People are moving towards EVs, but for some OEMs to hit their 22% ZEV target, more need to choose BEVs rather than hybrid or petrol cars. Using CitNOW Insights’ Business Intelligence, retailers can track lead management by fuel-type data. Using this information and, for some manufacturers, often armed with impressive deals for BEVs, sales teams can increase their focus on converting more buyers from hybrid and petrol cars to BEVs.

However, it is online that customers’ hearts and minds must first be won.

Research undertaken by ICDP reveals that 60% of buyers made a final decision on the brand and model that they expected to buy via online research, before visiting a retailer, and they stuck with this decision after visiting the retailer.

Re-imagining digital communication to increase BEV sales 

‘When buying an electric vehicle, consumers want an experience that matches their expectations of the car itself. That is, something exciting and innovative but also reliable and predictable. They expect to both transact online and negotiate with a real person, and they still need to take a test drive. However, the overall experience needs to be more seamless, more personalised, and more flexible than it was in the days of forecourt walkarounds.’

McKinsey’s Future of Auto Retail – July 2023

CitNOW Conversations has been developed to meet these needs. It has been designed to make it easier for retailers to communicate with customers seamlessly on the messaging channels they prefer, when they want, from one central platform – whichever fuel type they are looking for.

Retailers can engage with every online visitor in real time by adding a live chat widget and a WhatsApp icon to their website; Facebook Messenger & Google My Business Messages are other options. Integration with OEM apps is also possible.

The platform makes it easier for customers to start conversations and discover more about BEVs.

But the platform is much more than just a communication hub.

Efficient communication on any channel at every step of the customer journey. CitNOW Conversations is an ideal tool to help enhance BEV sales now.

Just contact us to discover more about how CitNOW Group can make exceeding those ZEV targets a bit easier.

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Opportunities to enhance conversions in a ‘Product Push’ market

The extended delivery timescales for new cars seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic are a distant memory. Today, we see strong levels of supply from existing and new manufacturers. It all has the hallmark of a push market, or in other words, it is a buyer’s market.

The ‘push’ is particularly prominent for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in light of the Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEV) Mandate. 

Time to embrace the challenge

In 2023, our Dealerweb platform, utilised by over 1,000 retailers in the UK, revealed notable industry trends: 30% of new car enquiries translated into orders, marking a 15% increase in new car orders compared to 2022, while 31% of used car enquiries resulted in orders. Additionally, there was a 5% uptick in both used car enquiries and orders compared to the previous year, contributing to a 16% rise in the total order volume for new cars and a 9% increase for used cars.

Assessing year-on-year conversions, despite having 2% fewer new vehicle enquiries in 2023 vs 2022, conversion rates increased from 25% to 30%. It suggests clear evidence of a concerted effort to close more leads. The used car market saw conversion rates stable at 31% in 2023.

Equipped with this benchmark position, here are our thoughts on how some of the tools within the CitNOW Group ecosystem can help more retailers gain an edge in lead generation and conversions.

Stock pricing 

Pricing is crucial in turning customer awareness into action in an online search. It is vital to ensure that stock is priced appropriately. This is where RTC Insights ‘InStock’ can be very effective. With access to data from hundreds of retailers, in real-time, a retailer can check that their stock is priced correctly and adjust this pricing as it ages.

At the same time, RTC Insights provides data on stocking days and can track lead management trends. It is a package that applies science to the traditional art of used car stocking, and the fact that so many retailers use it is evidence of its effectiveness. 

Online lead generation 

While 10% of car buyers will buy their next car entirely online, the rest will on average visit 2.7 retailers and conduct 3.75 visits. This insight is taken from research provided to CitNOW by international research and consulting organisation ICDP, based on feedback from 2,430 consumers.  

What we can take from this is the critical importance of a retailer’s digital presence. Certainly, price is a part of the customer equation. Still, the importance of an emotional connection created by the quality of promotional activity and the engagement experience gained by the prospective customer in the research part of their car-buying journey, should not be underestimated. Creating positive perceptions and then delivering them matters. 

When it comes to images and video, CitNOW Imaging provides quality assurance with its AI-enabled capabilities. Fast, efficient, and visually stunning, it is outstanding and rapid in taking images and ensuring stills and videos can be uploaded automatically to marketing platforms.   

As well as expecting high quality digital assets, today’s car buyers often want a seamless, personalised, and flexible experience and multi-channel touchpoints; a new offering from the CItNOW Group ecosystem’ CitNOW Conversations, delivers this.

Retailers can engage with every online visitor in real time by adding a live chat widget and a WhatsApp icon to their website; Facebook Messenger & Google My Business Messages are other options. The platform makes it easier for customers to start conversations and discover more about the cars they are interested in, whether it is new or used. With the ability to also integrate into an OEM app, the platform is much more than just a communication hub.

The part-exchange sales lead opportunity 

According to CitNOW Group’s Uniting customers and retailers report, some 56% of customers said they would be more inclined to buy from a retailer that provided a part exchange offer before visiting the dealership. CitNOW Appraise, digitises the part exchange valuation process and enables a seamless customer journey from your website or CitNOW Sales video presentation page.  It allows customers to provide essential vehicle information, photographs, and videos to create a complete information/image portfolio that helps retailers offer an accurate and authentic valuation.  

Converting online interest into action 

Getting someone to test drive a car, and they are more likely to buy, is a well-established mantra in car retailing. In today’s omnichannel marketplace, however, there is a step ahead of this: converting online interest into a showroom visit. 

Building on CitNOW Conversations’ lead-building capability, CitNOW Sales elevates the customer’s digital experience, taking the car and dealer to the customer digitally. This step helps create the bridge that brings the customer into the showroom. 

Specifically designed for sales executives, CitNOW Sales builds on a customer’s initial online experience by providing personalised videos of vehicles in response to a customer’s enquiry. The engagement and emotional connection with the car, retailer, and sales executive are compelling. The process also bypasses any concerns that they might feel about a face-to-face experience. CitNOW Sales is about creating rapport and trust, which can take as little as 60 seconds to achieve. 

Inevitably these are high level summaries of some of the support available across the CitNOW Group ecosystem. To discover more about how our tools can help and be tailored contact us, we welcome the opportunity of helping you. 

Digitising part exchange

Finding quality used stock is an ongoing and time-consuming challenge for every retailer. In recent years, the situation has been complicated by the emergence of online used car buying services disrupting the traditional part-exchange process.

On the face of it, online used car buying services would appear to add an additional link in the part-exchange ‘value chain’ in terms of time and cost. So why do so many customers like them, and how can retailers adapt?

Working with international research and consulting organisation ICDP, 2,430 consumers shared their views on the trade-in process; here is what they said;

• A little over half felt it was easier to get a fair price for their trade-in now than it was five years ago
• Slightly less would prefer to handle the trade-in separately from the purchase of another car
• 45 per cent felt that they were likely to use an online trade-in service in the future
• 43 per cent believed that online trade-in services offer better prices than a car retailer
• However almost 50 per cent of customers said they would be worried about using an online trade-in service and the same amount believed that using an online trade-in service makes it difficult to coordinate the trade-in and purchase dates. 

In short, the perception of gaining a fairer price is the primary driver for using online used car buying services. However, there are some trust issues with such services.  The reason for part-exchanging an existing car with the retailer centers largely on convenience. 

What a customer wants from their trade-in experience can be summed up as Hassle-Free/Control/Great Price/Trust and the option of keeping the trade-in separate from their car purchase should they so wish.

CitNOW Appraise, formerly Vehicle Vision Assist for Sales, has been designed to embrace these requirements. Helping to retain people who would already prefer to part-exchange their car with a retailer and meeting the needs of people who like the online used car buying model, by very arguably doing it better.

A digital valuation process that thinks like a customer

CitNOW Appraise is a digital vehicle appraisal tool that customers can use remotely and straight from a retailer’s own website, to appraise their own vehicles. It allows customers to provide essential vehicle information, photographs, and videos to create a complete information/image portfolio that helps retailers offer an accurate and authentic valuation.

The tool, with its easy-to-use process, guidance tools, and tips, puts the customer in complete control, delivering a compelling and trust-building experience. Customers are free from any concerns that a person is assessing their car and trying to buy it for the lowest price, a psychological pressure that online car buyers are often keen to promote.

Once the customer has appraised their car, they simply upload the images and supporting description, and the retailer can quickly and entirely remotely make an informed and accurate valuation. Easy and hassle-free for customers – great for retailers looking to boost their used car stock.

Best practice tips

CitNOW Appraise can be fully branded, emailed to customers, added to a website, and integrated within CRM activity; it can even be used in the showroom and integrates seamlessly with CitNOW Sales.

To optimise its impact, we recommend providing guidance on the quick and easy nature of the process, and, importantly, explaining why their engagement helps retailers provide the best price.

Contact us to discover more about how CitNOW Appraise can help you digitise your part exchange.

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