As the Coronavirus pandemic
continues, the automotive industry has seen physical traffic come to a near
standstill. Most dealers are now depending on their website as the primary or
only source of continued vehicle sales. Now more than ever, the online showroom
is essential to success and optimal digital performance is no longer optional.
These four best practices will help you transform your digital showroom,
ensuring it works as hard as possible to turn every shopper into a customer.
Communicate COVID-19 Precautions
Make your shoppers feel at ease knowing that you’re doing everything possible
to keep your staff and customers safe. Whether you’re offering home delivery or
on-premise signing and pick up, reassure shoppers and customers by consistently
communicating your health and safety efforts to your customer mailing list,
through social media and on your website, where interstitials can be a
particularly effective tool. Proactive safety communications are also essential
if you are offering repair, maintenance or other fixed ops services. Ensure
that you are closely following safety procedures during vehicle pick-up,
signing, and vehicle delivery, and make this overtly visible to customers.
Bring your vehicle walkarounds from the lot to your website
Right now, your VDPs are your most powerful selling tool and it’s imperative
that you give shoppers an immersive online experience that replicates your
physical showroom. Since shoppers are likely unable to physically visit your
dealership, give them the same interactive experience on your vehicle detail
pages with SpinCar’s 360º WalkArounds.
Make your VDPs compelling and engaging
Avoid digital walk-offs by delivering accurate and consistent information
across all of your VDPs. Pricing should be highly visible and easy to find on
every VDP, as well as contact information, hours of operation and COVID-related
changes to your normal operations. Pay attention to your vehicle descriptions
by telling a compelling story that makes shoppers really engage and dream about
your vehicle. Avoid long lists, excess clutter, and too much technical jargon.
The right mix of engaging language, concise storytelling and unique highlights
will make you stand out from the competition. Don’t forget to use your “why buy
from us” message at the end of your seller’s notes to drive home your unique
value proposition.
Tell the story of every vehicle
Use tools that demonstrate the full value of each vehicle. With COVID-19
keeping people at home, your salespeople can no longer share all the key
features of a vehicle with a shopper during a test drive or a walkaround. Put
your shoppers in the driver’s seat on your VDP with tools like Feature Tour, which highlights the uniquely
valuable features of each vehicle using curated multi-media content tailored to
the needs and interests of each individual shopper.
These are unprecedented times for our industry that we are all navigating
together. SpinCar is here to offer solutions that help dealerships bring
automotive showrooms to life online and transform VDPs into immersive shopping
experiences. For tips and updates, visit our SpinCar Facebook page and SpinCar Instagram page. To learn more
about the solutions we’re offering that are helping dealers through this
crisis, take a nine minute virtual demo.