How do you shop online?
The majority of consumers have probably bought something online. Whether this is a small item or a large purchase, online shopping has become the norm in our society. As someone on the other side of the computer, selling instead of buying, I have noticed a difference in how people shop when they are online, compared to shopping in person. However, I have yet to nail down the exact differences between the two.
The biggest difference I have noticed in online shopping is the role that anonymity plays in the process. As a car dealership, when someone comes into our store to get a quote on a vehicle, they are usually a fairly serious shopper. However, when people ask for the same quote online, they generally seem to be very early in the process of shopping, if they are truly in the market at all. It seems that not having to look people in the face makes it easier to seek out the information you are looking for.
The other large difference that I have noticed is that online shoppers are almost always price shoppers. As a dealership that sells on overall value, it has been difficult to translate this onto the internet. Generally if we do not have the best price online, we potentially lose the customer without them getting a chance to see how we do business. As much as we would like to sell to people based on our relationship with them, we realize that we must adjust our online strategy in order to stay with the times.
Besides these glaring differences, there is still a lot we need to learn about online shoppers. One of the biggest questions we have comes from when we have the same price as our competition. With price out of the way, what makes consumers purchase from one company over another? Is it based on ease of ordering? The website of the company? The timeliness of the response? Without a doubt we wish we had the answer so any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated!
Besides that, we want to better understand what brings people to us online. We track our advertising and search results but we haven’t nailed down what makes us earn your click over our competition. When you’re shopping online, what makes you click on one ad or link over another? Do you do research or pick the one you think looks like the best fit? If you can share how you shop online, I would greatly appreciate it! We are always trying to learn how we can better serve our customers. As always, if you would like to respond in private, please feel free to reach me at: cihde@ewaldauto.com