Ensuring your business is in a strong position for Q4

Traditionally, the final quarter presents retailers with an opportunity to focus on ending the calendar year as strongly as possible. This year is no different, although the next three months could pose some challenges.

New car registrations

Cox Automotive, the global automotive services company, warned the new car market will be “extremely challenging” in Q4, prompting it to reforecast its full year total down 2% to 2.01 million units, although that will still be an increase on 2023.

A significant headwind impacting how retailers sell new cars in Q4 will be the effect of the ZEV mandate which will penalise OEMs whose electric vehicles (EVs) sales fall below 22% of their volumes by the end of this year.

Cox Automotive believes the legislation could prompt some carmakers to “prioritise pushing EVs into the market through aggressive fleet and retail price strategies or restrict the availability of ICE (internal combustion engine) and PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) derivatives to force EV sales.”

Indeed, Robert Forrester, CEO of Vertu Motors, one of the biggest dealer groups in the UK added his voice to the debate, telling The Telegraph: “In some franchises there’s a restriction on supply of petrol cars and hybrid cars, which is actually where the demand is. It’s almost as if we can’t supply the cars that people want, but we’ve got plenty of the cars that maybe they don’t want.”

Used car sales trends

According to Cox Automotive there are also “significant hurdles” facing used car sales, following growth in Q1 and Q2.3

Its forecast for the remainder of 2024 suggests a slowdown, driven by “tightening wholesale supply and increasing price competition in the new car sector” which it expects to “cool transaction volumes in Q3 and Q4, despite the overall market still showing signs of resilience.”

Despite this it believes 7.4 million used car transactions will be recorded by the end of the year, up 2.7% on 2023.

Retailers will certainly be hoping to boost their forecourts from part-exchanges on the back of the new 74-plate change, with volumes generally gathering momentum from late September.

Although the new retail sales are under pressure, the sector will be encouraged by recent consumer research by JudgeService which found two-thirds of owners prefer to use retailers for part-exchange valuations, rather than specialist online services.

“Our data highlights the under-appreciated role franchised dealers have as the preferred source of part-exchange valuations, despite the noise created by the challenger online car buying services,” said Neil Addley, managing director of JudgeService.

Supercharging your performance in Q4

This time of the year can present challenges after the buzz generated by the plate-change when customers’ minds and budgets inevitably turn to the festive period. We don’t need to tell you every sale counts, and that’s why we’re going to explore the importance of having the right tools in place to support your strategic goals for the quarter:

Vehicle appraisals

TIP: With the September plate change boosting part exchange activity, use CitNOW Appraise to make October a key month for used car sales.

This powerful tool enables you to retain more customers during their purchase journey, delivering fast, accurate and competitive vehicle appraisals through a simple, seamless digital process. Following a simple template, customers simply submit video footage and photos online which you can review remotely. You can then provide fast, accurate, no hassle, first time valuations, avoiding the need for any awkward customer conversations.

Stock imagery

TIP: Ensure all your stock imagery (stills and video) is fully optimised every time a vehicle is posted online. Consistency is crucial.

With CitNOW Imaging, retailers can capture and deliver high quality, consistent assets – super fast. It also helps reduce the amount of unadvertised stock and days in stock, decreases time to web and provides the showroom sales team with a more efficient overall solution to marketing new cars.

Personalised video

TIP: With the sector focused on increasing EV sales, use personalised videos to communicate and educate customers on the cars you have in stock, with trained salespeople positioning themselves as trusted experts.

CitNOW Sales builds on a customer’s initial online experience and takes the showroom to them – digitally. Designed for sales executives, it provides an easy way to film, edit and send personalised videos of new and used vehicles as a response to individual enquiries, creating trust and building lasting relationships.

Customer communications

TIP: Make it easy for customers to engage with you and follow up in the way that suits them.

CitNOW Conversations delivers seamless, multi-channel, two-way, customer communications across your business. Designed for automotive retailers, this powerful communication tool consolidates all mobile based messages and provides a single point of reference for all conversations no matter which messaging channel (Live Chat, WhatsApp, email) is used, ensuring more coordinated and streamlined communication, 24/7.

Managing leads

TIP: Ensure every lead is followed up immediately by automating the process.

With response times more crucial than ever in a successful sales conversion, Dealerweb React has been designed to ensure 100% web-lead capture, followed up by 100% web-lead response, with 0% leakage. By automating the collation of web-leads, our tool guides sales staff through a professional, consistent and personalised response process.

Discover more about how CitNOW Group can maximise your Q4 opportunities.