Corona also affects car buyer's habits. Instead of car dealer they look around, especially on the net. Retailers should react to this.
The corona crisis and the lockdown show effects on the buying behavior and decision-making of car customers in Germany. This is the result of a survey by the market research company Puls among 1.050 drivers who have bought a car in the past 12 months or plan to do so in the next 6 months. The crisis in particular poses new challenges for the car trade.
Overall, the respondents were feeling unsettled by the Corona crisis. A good half of those willing to buy therefore want to postpone their car purchase, but at least a third want to make up for it directly after Corona. Meanwhile, 85% of car customers show understanding for corona-related delivery delays. The market researchers recommend that car dealers nevertheless actively point out delays and provide customers with bridging offers such as car subscriptions or short-term rentals.
As a result of the current “forced isolation” of the population, the importance of the Internet when searching for information has also increased for car customers. Above all, car portals, manufacturer websites, reviews of other customers and social networks are given more importance by customers. 16 percent of those surveyed stated that in return the importance of personal sales pitches will decrease.
Nevertheless, the direct experience of a vehicle remains important for the majority of those surveyed. Car dealerships are therefore more than ever required to better interlink opinion-finding on the Internet and the close-up experience of cars. In the opinion of the opinion research institute, a digitization of the sales processes starting from Corona should initiate a further selection process in the automobile trade, in which not the big ones beat the small ones, but the fast ones the slow ones.