LONDON, Ontario -

There’s a lot of talk about the car retail purchase process moving from the physical dealership to fully online. Online, meaning every step of the buying process, from research up to delivery, is completed digitally.

But are customers ready? That’s a question Drew Harden, manager of research and insights at CARFAX Canada, recently asked over 1,000 Canadian consumers in a survey as part of the company’s Driving Insights consumer research and dealer education program. 

Sharing findings of that aforementioned survey, Harden told Auto Remarketing Canada during a phone interview in early December, that only 12% of customers said they would want to buy their next used car exclusively online, versus going the traditional dealership route.

“People still really just want to go and see the car in person so they can test drive, have the salesperson answer questions and, believe it or not, one in four surveyed said they just liked visiting the dealership,” said Harden. “So, there’s still a lot of value in that area.”

He went on to emphasize that with used cars, there’s simply “more nuance” between one vehicle of like model and the next — and these nuances can be fairly important for buyers.

That said, many shoppers would rather do some to most of buying the process online. Specifically, CARFAX Canada discovered that 32% of customers want to negotiate the price of their next car online, 28% want to view warranties and 31% want to determine their trade-in value online, per the recent survey.

“So, what we took out of all of this was that it may not be time to go completely online right now, but I think there’s more of an opportunity for a hybrid approach,” Harden said

Part of the issue or hold up, according to CARFAX Canada, is simply that “a used vehicle needs to be touched and seen and experienced in order to fully understand exactly what you’re getting.”

Harden offered this analogy. When you sit in a new car, you smell that “new-car smell.” But anyone in the vehicle industry knows that today, that smell doesn’t come naturally in the manufacturing plant — it likely comes out of a can.

“And as long as people care enough about what the inside of the car smells like, we’re a couple of steps away from being able to buy it online,” said Harden. “Because it’s not even a matter of understanding that it drives well … people literally want a full sensory experience at this point.”

The financing issue

What are some additional challenges?

Among what are sure to be a variety of factors at play, the concern of financing seems to be a sticking point for pre-owned vehicle customers.

CARFAX research found that only one in five (21.2%) of used-car buyers wanted to compete their financing application online.

Granted, Harden offered this note for perspective: “Now, this is far from the majority of customers, but still, one in five customers is hundreds of thousands of potential buyers.”

For used buyers, the next impetus for wanting to head to the physical dealership for purchase was those who wanted to see the car in person at 70%. Sixty-six percent of survey respondents wanted to test drive, and 50% wanted to have a salesperson available to answer questions.

Perhaps most interestingly, and against common knowledge, Harden also pointed out that almost a quarter (24%) of customers “just like visiting the dealership.”

With all this in mind, he had this advice for dealers when it comes to online retailing and financing options: “Consider trying a hybrid approach: Let the customer decide how much and which parts of the process they want to do online, and which parts they want to carry out in the dealership.”

Shannon Friesen, vice president of dealer services at Canada Drives, says she expects automotive retail to continue changing and improving through 2020, especially as it relates to the consumer experience.

“We’ve already seen that car shoppers spend hours upon hours researching cars online. Those same shoppers are increasingly willing to complete their purchase and financing wholly online to save time and make their buying experience more convenient. Carmakers and dealers have already been working on this structure, like Tesla’s driveway delivery model,” she said.

It’s an area of growth that’s bound to take off in 2020, Friesen said.

That said, she noted, in agreement with Harden’s data, some shoppers are willing to process a vehicle purchase transaction online, while many are still hesitant.

For example, customers may want a more convenient shopping experience, but the most recent Cox Automotive Future of Digital Retail study found that less than half of auto buyers would be comfortable to secure financing and sign paperwork online. (Again, financing — a potential sticking point.)

She offered one potential answer.

“One solution is vehicle delivery in the form of off-site test drives and sales with someone from the dealership. Taking the test drive to the customer has been tried and tested. It’s destined to become a staple in auto retail going into the next decade, all in the name of convenience,” Friesen said.

Nuno Loureiro, director of business intelligence at TRADER Corp., said that digitization of the vehicle transaction itself is going to rapidly accelerate in 2020.

“More automakers in Canada are trying to change the traditional dealership model by opening ‘experience centres’ or even bypassing dealerships entirely and using a concierge service instead where they can sell you a car in your own home. Some automakers are also experimenting with subscription-based sales models that bundle insurance, car payments and maintenance in one monthly payment,” he said.  “Some automakers are trying ‘no-haggle’ pricing to make transactions more transparent. There is a larger focus on making things more convenient for consumers and trying to make the dealership experience easier and less intimidating.

“Digital retailing/e-commerce/omnichannel has been a mainstream theme throughout our industry trade shows and vendor programs for the last five years,” he added.

A ‘no-haggle approach — are auto shoppers really all about it?

Negotiation has always been a top pain point for used-car buyers, so one would assume the no-haggle approach, gaining popularity among franchised and independent dealers alike, would be well received by consumers. And Harden pointed out, in today’s online listing environment there is barely any margin left for negotiation anyways.

But it seems shoppers may have other plans in mind.

“Even though used-car buyers say they hate negotiation, only 27% of them said they would prefer to buy their next car from a no-haggle dealership over a traditional dealership that allows for negotiation,” Harden said, citing the recent CARFAX survey.

There’s just a lack of trust right now, Harden says.

According to CARFAX Canada, data, 63% of used-car buyers believe they have to haggle to get the best price, 77% believe that there is always room to negotiate and 71% don’t trust when a dealership says they’ll give the best price right away.

“When we asked what it would take to make these used-car buyers trust no-haggle, they said they want you to justify your price. Specifically, they want you to show them comparable vehicles online (55%), and second, explain what your prices are based on (52%),” Harden said.

CARFAX Canada is seeing that consumers don’t trust when the dealer says they’ll give the best price right away. And there’s a really strong belief that they will have to haggle to get the best price.

So, what will it take to gain that trust? Harden says being able to show them comparisons, and/or the data to back up your assertion on the “perfect price” for a used vehicle is key.

It’s just a matter of “reminding them why they came to your store” — for the best price.

“Sometimes it takes sitting down and noting, ‘OK, let’s look at TRADER. Let’s pull up our vAuto or the CARFAX, and just talk through this,” he said. “That’s what customers seem to be willing to accept these days.”

Although there is opportunity for success with a no-haggle approach, for customers to trust it, Harden said, the sales process needs to include conversations that justifies the price — rather than just avoiding the price discussion all together.

 

*All CARFAX Canada data cited in this article stems from a 2019 survey of 1013 Canadians, who all bought a used car from a dealership.