I Wonder if Dealership Websites Are Solving the Wrong Problem?

[Vochi]

Dealerships treat car buying like an inventory problem, when it’s actually a lifestyle problem.​

Car sites force potential clients to become experts in the different automotive lineups for each year make, model, and trim, just to find the car that fits their needs. And to make it worse, a lot of times people will buy a car because of the cars color, wheels, or design and never consider rather the car is the best fit for the job.

When you land on a dealership website or a 3rd party site like cargurus or cars.com (that dealerships are forced to use, because their sites can't compete) you will notice everything is about make, model, and year.

Which makes the consumers job to educate themselves on information they will never need again about each make, model, and trim, so they can determine which car best fits their needs.

I guess what I’m trying to ask is, could dealership websites be answering the wrong questions and solving the wrong problems?

 

[KennySmithAutoUnite]

I think you’re onto something here.

Most dealership websites are built around one question: “Which vehicle are you looking for?”

But a lot of customers haven’t figured that out yet.

They know they have two kids, a dog, a long commute, need room for road trips, want something good in bad weather, and have a budget they’re trying to stay within.

They may have no idea if that means a Pilot, Telluride, Traverse, Grand Highlander, or something they haven’t even looked at yet.

That’s where I think we make the customer do too much work.

We send them somewhere else to research, compare vehicles, figure out trims, learn the differences, and then hope they come back when they’re finally ready to look at inventory.

Inventory still matters. Price matters. Availability matters. The exact VIN matters.

I just think there’s a step before all of that that dealership websites could be much better at.

Help me figure out what fits my life first.

Then show me the vehicles that make sense.

Then show me the inventory.

If somebody already knows they want a Wrangler Rubicon, great. Get them there fast.

But if they only know what they need the vehicle to do, we should be able to help with that too.

We’ve gotten really good at helping people find cars.

I think the bigger opportunity is getting better at helping people decide which car they should be looking for in the first place.

 

[Vochi]

I think you’re onto something here.

Most dealership websites are built around one question: “Which vehicle are you looking for?”

But a lot of customers haven’t figured that out yet.

They know they have two kids, a dog, a long commute, need room for road trips, want something good in bad weather, and have a budget they’re trying to stay within.

They may have no idea if that means a Pilot, Telluride, Traverse, Grand Highlander, or something they haven’t even looked at yet.

That’s where I think we make the customer do too much work.

We send them somewhere else to research, compare vehicles, figure out trims, learn the differences, and then hope they come back when they’re finally ready to look at inventory.

Inventory still matters. Price matters. Availability matters. The exact VIN matters.

I just think there’s a step before all of that that dealership websites could be much better at.

Help me figure out what fits my life first.

Then show me the vehicles that make sense.

Then show me the inventory.

If somebody already knows they want a Wrangler Rubicon, great. Get them there fast.

But if they only know what they need the vehicle to do, we should be able to help with that too.

We’ve gotten really good at helping people find cars.

I think the bigger opportunity is getting better at helping people decide which car they should be looking for in the first place.

The reason I made the post was because this past week my wife told me my daughter has been talking about getting her first car to drive back and forth to work. They are looking for a pink VW Beetle because she had seen a pink one and really liked it.

And my first thought was, “How do I explain to her that's not how you buy a car?”

Then I thought every car has a purpose for which it is better suited for, so I needed to try and understand which car best suits my daughters needs?

You’ve a 5 ton truck that’s great for hauling things but makes a terrible daily driver.

However some are great for towing. Some are great on the highway. Some are inexpensive to maintain. Some are great in snow or bad weather. Some have lots of room but aren't efficient.

But when I’m looking at cars online, all of that gets buried underneath make, model, year, trim, color, wheels, packages, etc.

So I started thinking about how I would build the experience if I were doing it specifically for my daughter.

First, make every car pink.

If she likes the pink Beetle, that's fine. But let's take color and styling out of the equation for a minute and figure out what the car actually needs to do for her.

Then ask her a series of simple questions about how she drives, what she needs, what matters to her, what she can afford, reliability, space, mileage, and so on.

At the end, instead of giving her 500 cars to look through, give her three vehicles that actually make sense for her.

Then explain why.

Maybe the Beetle is one of them. Maybe it isn't.

And if she really wants the Beetle, that's fine too. She can keep it in the comparison and see how it stacks up against the other choices.

Once she decides, then we get into inventory.

Now we're comparing the actual cars available locally with things like trim, mileage, price, accident/history information, maintenance, equipment, and everything else that matters when choosing between two otherwise similar vehicles.

And then the last step, she clicks a button and she has me contact the dealership so I can help her through the actual purchase.

And to be honest I’ve been so out of touch with the car market for so long I haven’t a clue what the best car for her would be and rather than just trust some guy at the dealership to tell me how the car on his lot is the best car for her, I figure I needed to understand what matters most to her, then figure out which car best fits those needs, then compare every car for sale in the area with what really matters (and it isn't price) and in the process I begin to wonder if dealerships websites might have missed the mark?

 

[JayKelly]

When we bought our house it was a light tan color. My wife wanted to paint it. We went through the whole process. We and by we I mean I painted it white. It was a night and day improvement. I then asked my neighbor how he likes the color. He said it's great why do you ask? I said because you look at the outside of my house 50x more than I do....

So based upon the data, The Sherman Williams store should canvass the neighborhood look for odd colored housing and offer the husband a discount.

Asking a website to parse motivation is outside the realm of possibility.
The website is designed to capture intent.
Does your daughter want a pink car or a pink bug?
You would probably be better off buying a bug and having it wrapped vs trying to find a pink one.
The website is designed to convert your intent into a sale that is it.

 

[KennySmithAutoUnite]

The reason I made the post was because this past week my wife told me my daughter has been talking about getting her first car to drive back and forth to work. They are looking for a pink VW Beetle because she had seen a pink one and really liked it.

And my first thought was, “How do I explain to her that's not how you buy a car?”

Then I thought every car has a purpose for which it is better suited for, so I needed to try and understand which car best suits my daughters needs?

You’ve a 5 ton truck that’s great for hauling things but makes a terrible daily driver.

However some are great for towing. Some are great on the highway. Some are inexpensive to maintain. Some are great in snow or bad weather. Some have lots of room but aren't efficient.

But when I’m looking at cars online, all of that gets buried underneath make, model, year, trim, color, wheels, packages, etc.

So I started thinking about how I would build the experience if I were doing it specifically for my daughter.

First, make every car pink.

If she likes the pink Beetle, that's fine. But let's take color and styling out of the equation for a minute and figure out what the car actually needs to do for her.

Then ask her a series of simple questions about how she drives, what she needs, what matters to her, what she can afford, reliability, space, mileage, and so on.

At the end, instead of giving her 500 cars to look through, give her three vehicles that actually make sense for her.

Then explain why.

Maybe the Beetle is one of them. Maybe it isn't.

And if she really wants the Beetle, that's fine too. She can keep it in the comparison and see how it stacks up against the other choices.

Once she decides, then we get into inventory.

Now we're comparing the actual cars available locally with things like trim, mileage, price, accident/history information, maintenance, equipment, and everything else that matters when choosing between two otherwise similar vehicles.

And then the last step, she clicks a button and she has me contact the dealership so I can help her through the actual purchase.

And to be honest I’ve been so out of touch with the car market for so long I haven’t a clue what the best car for her would be and rather than just trust some guy at the dealership to tell me how the car on his lot is the best car for her, I figure I needed to understand what matters most to her, then figure out which car best fits those needs, then compare every car for sale in the area with what really matters (and it isn't price) and in the process I begin to wonder if dealerships websites might have missed the mark?

That example with your daughter is probably the best way to explain it.

If she walked into my store asking for a pink Beetle, I wouldn’t tell her she’s shopping wrong. I’d ask a few questions first. How far is she driving? What can she comfortably afford? How important is reliability? What does she actually need the car to do?

Then show her a few vehicles that make sense and explain why.

And I’d leave the Beetle in there too. If she understands the tradeoffs and still wants the pink Beetle, that’s fine. The point isn’t to choose for her. It’s to help her make a better decision.

I think that’s the piece we’re missing online.

Some customers know exactly what they want and should be able to get straight to inventory.

Others need help getting from “I need a car” to “these are the three that actually make sense for me.”

Once they make that decision, then we get into the actual inventory, mileage, condition, history, equipment, price and which store they want to deal with.

A good salesperson already does a lot of this in person. I think the website should be able to do some of it before the customer ever raises their hand.