Reply to thread

Bill,

Ironically, I was doing some research on this very topic. Here is what I dug up:

1. Current Repeat Customer Sales: On average, repeat customers account for about 20% of sales in some dealerships, with some seeing as high as 29% or even 34%. This indicates a significant portion of sales can come from repeat customers, though it varies by dealership.
2. Profitability of Repeat Customers: Repeat customers are more profitable over their lifetime compared to first-time buyers. For every 100 deals from repeat customers, dealers gain 10 more vehicle purchases and $2,660 more in gross profit than from first-time buyers . This highlights the financial benefits of focusing on repeat customers.
3. Cost Efficiency: Acquiring new customers is significantly more expensive than retaining existing ones. It can cost five times more to earn the business of a new customer compared to a repeat purchase from a returning customer. This cost efficiency underscores the importance of investing in customer retention.
4. Revenue Contribution: A small percentage of loyal customers can contribute a large portion of revenue. For instance, 8% of customers can generate 40% of the revenue for an online parts department . This suggests that a focused effort on retaining high-value customers can yield substantial financial returns.

And the data that I found to compile this is already a couple of years old, but I would imagine it's pretty accurate.