Navigating online automotive sales – Key insights from consumers around the globe

Munich, July 2024

Navigating online automotive sales - key insights from consumers around the globe

Munich, July 2024
D

espite heavy investments, OEMs are facing the challenge to sell cars online mainly due to low customer awareness.

As a result, online vehicle sales fall short for many OEMs. Our latest research, „Navigating Online Automotive Sales – Key Insights from Consumers Around the Globe,“ tackles this issue head-on. We explored what customers in Germany, China, the USA, and Korea mean by „buying cars online,“ which steps they prefer to complete online versus offline, the role of dealers, and what encourages online car purchases.

Here are some of our Key Insights:

  1. HERE TO STAY: Post covid hype – where vehicle availability was limited & willingness to pay was high – is over! Yet, Digital Automotive Commerce is here to stay, as some customers (especially EV customers) prefer digital over physical touchpoints. OEMs must create a decisive and clear USP (over offline retail) for customers when deciding to drive online sales.
  2. POWER OF CHOICE: In parallel, OEMs need to enable the customer to switch between online & offline (a.k.a. “true omnichannel”) – Especially for more complex steps such as trade-in and financing and price negotiations, OEMs must create digital journeys forwarding hot leads to the dealer to be converted for the neuralgic sales steps
  3. ROLE OF THE DEALER: Speaking of offline: The dealer role is and will remain critical, especially for digital sales as retail is “part of the system” – also the customer requests advice primarily in person, which can also be enabled using digital channels (e.g. via virtual consultation)

 

Download the full report to explore all insights and strategies for enhancing online vehicle sales.

In our latest Webinar in cooperation with Civey, our experts show what is important to automotive customers along the entire process of buying cars online – Enjoy watching!

Berylls Insight
Navigating online automotive sales - Key insights from consumers around the globe
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Authors
Henry Lundt

Principal

Philipp Purrucker

Senior Associate

Julian Krugmann

Associate

Pia Wurst

Consultant

Henry Lundt

Henry Lundt (1984) is a Principal at Berylls Mad Media (part of Berylls Group), the experts for transforming sales & marketing in the automotive industry. He is an expert in digital automotive commerce as well organizational transformation and can look back on many years of consulting experience in various roles.

Henry Lundt has been digitizing automotive sales & marketing for manufacturers and suppliers since 2009 and has experience in the areas of holistic strategy development, digital product development & applying and optimizing agile working models. Beyond this, Henry Lundt built expertise in digital automotive commerce, consulting our clients to build and optimize transaction journeys. Prior to joining Berylls Mad Media, he set up Berylls Digital Ventures as first Berylls Group entity – prior to joining Berylls, Henry Lundt was Head of Automotive at TD Reply, a marketing & innovation consulting firm, focused on digital business.

He graduated as business economist from the University of EBC Berlin in marketing & media with a combined studies in Business Management in University of Sunderland & University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK).