Hyvä yhteenveto siitä, miten korona on vauhdittanut käytettyjen (ja uusien) autojen kaupan digitalisaatiota ja kuluttajakäyttäytymistä rapakon takana. Alalla on nähty kohtalaisen vauhdikas sykäys kohti online-ostamista. Edellyttää, että kaupalla on hyvin hoidettu digikanava, autojen esittelyt, rahoitusjärjestelyt on tehty sujuviksi jne. Artikkeli käsittelee mm. Carvanaa kattavasti.
In 2019 about 1% of the 40 million used vehicles that changed hands in the U.S. were bought online. Carvana, Shift and Vroom collectively sold 125,411 vehicles at retail in the first half of 2020, a 36% increase from the same period a year earlier.
Carvana is selling about a quarter as many vehicles as CarMax Inc., the largest used-car dealer in America. Garcia said he sees a path to moving 10 times as many vehicles in the next few years.
“The momentum of habit is what makes change occur at the rate that it does,” Garcia said. “There’s never been a period of time in my life when more habits were altered so drastically.”
In recent months, as lots have reopened for business, the pace of auto e-commerce has only increased, signaling a more fundamental change in the way Americans buy cars.
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These days, Case’s dealers combined sell about 113 machines a day and have fully digital transactions, virtual vehicle tours and Zoom sales calls.
“People used to go to four dealerships on average before buying a car,” Case said. “Now it’s 1.5, and the .5 is only because they’re not sure if they want a Honda or a Hyundai.”
Gone are the days when people needed to lay eyes on a car. With online videos and a cottage industry of semiprofessional car critics, it’s possible to get a really good look at a model via iPhone. Precision engineering and gains in manufacturing technology have made vehicles remarkably reliable—just scan J.D. Power’s annual reliability report for reassurance. And most sales, even used cars, are backstopped by gracious warranty programs.
For the skeptics, Shift still offers test drives. And Carvana and Vroom have seven-day return periods, as well as robust warranties. Carvana also offers a 100-day “worry-free” guarantee to repair any major problems.
While the momentum in the digital car market is not particularly mysterious, it did require a catalyst. The new platforms for selling vehicles were designed to improve what is widely seen as a painful process. But in mid to late March, so-called frictionless transactions went from ideal to imperative. Almost 40% of car buyers now prefer to purchase online, up from 19% pre-pandemic, according to CarGurus, a digital platform for vehicle listings.
Ultimately, the e-commerce economics may be too good to ignore. Dealers that figure out digital sales—and how to seamlessly add on fees and services—will save on staff and administration. Mike Ramsey, an analyst at Gartner, expects traditional dealerships will soon skip the sales office altogether. In the next few years, he reckons, 1 in 5 vehicles will be purchased online. “It will be like Amazon,” Ramsey said. “All of a sudden, everybody will be like, ‘Oh, we should have done this.’”