CARY, N.C. -

In an ever-expanding world of online vehicle buying, companies are finding their niche in every part of the process. Whether a company specializes in giving users vehicle listings, showing the appraised value of their current car, or even facilitating the entire purchase online, members of the industry are learning to adapt to what the customer wants.

For Gary Tucker, chief executive officer of DealerRater, giving the best experience to the customer will always drive the marketplace, no matter how it changes.

“(In the current marketplace), dealers are faced with the need to compete on customer experience. … The user comes to our site to research dealers and thinks, ‘How am I going to be treated there?’” Tucker said in a recent phone interview with Auto Remarketing.

In order to better understand customers who use its site, DealerRater commissioned a study from Oracle Data Cloud. The study ran from October to January, during which Oracle gathered data from DealerRater servers.

“Oracle took the data over a three-month period and connected the online visitors to our site with actual households,” Tucker said. “Then they waited a month, pulled data on who ended up making purchases, and compared it to the average (vehicle purchasing) consumer.”

The study found that visitors to the dealership profile pages on DealerRater's site were 3.5 times more likely to purchase a car than the average consumer. If a user viewed the profile of a specific dealership employee, then they were four times more likely to make a deal.

“We know that people come to us later in the process … (but) there is a beauty in hard, objective numbers that tell us how our site helps both consumer and dealers,” Tucker said.

DealerRater’s website, which offers reviews of dealership and employees across the country, has about 1 million visitors each month, 70,000 of which offer reviews of dealers and employees.

While many of these users are “late-stage” consumers (almost ready to enter a dealership and find their next car), Tucker realizes that online car buying has altered every part of the vehicle-buying process.

He calls the price of vehicles in today’s market “demystified,” as consumers can find the car they want with the features they want and the price they’re willing to pay, anywhere in the country.

Car buyers are no longer just driving around to dealerships in their hometown, in hopes of finding a dealer who might have they type of care they could see themselves driving.

“A car buyer (in 2016) visits about 1.2 dealers on average, because of the homework they've done up front,” Tucker said. “Car buying has never been more empowering for the consumer.”

In addition to providing dealership reviews to its users, DealerRater has strong relationships with 5,600 dealers through its “Certified Dealer” program. But for Tucker and DealerRater, it’s not just about consumers having knowledge of the dealership anymore. It's about the employees who work at those dealerships putting their best feet forward.

This relationship DealerRater observes between car buyers and dealer employees is the focus of the company’s recent white paper “Bridging the Car Buyer's Last Mile.” In it, the company suggests that while consumers must find the right product, price and place to make their vehicle purchase, today’s e-commerce standard demands the addition of a fourth “P” to that list. Car buyers must find the right person to work with in making their purchase.

Tucker argues that dealers and employees who do not take advantage of a strong personal online presence will experience a “Darwinian fallout,” while those who manage their online profile will see much better results.

“Our online platform gives dealers the set of tools they need for consumers to find them, but using the tools is the proactive part of running a dealership (in today's market),” Tucker said.

DealerRater clearly has a solid read on where the automotive marketplace is moving. But what about the rise of start-to-finish online car purchases?

Tucker doesn't think that will take over any time soon.

“I think that process will be very gradual,” he said.

He argues that while it may be more convenient to just purchase a car online, there is no trust involved in that process. Trust in car-buying can only be gained, Tucker suggests, by face-to-face interactions with experienced dealers who know how to help you get the car you want for a reasonable price.

“Cars are still sold one at a time, between two people,” Tucker wrote in the white paper.

Note: This story has been udpated to include a correction on the number of DealerRater Certified Dealers.