Rising Importance of Vehicle Sites

Vehicle manufacturers' web sites are an increasingly important part of their sales machinery, according to new results from J.D. Power and Associates.

The first wave of the 2004 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study SM, just released, says new-vehicle shoppers who rate a manufacturer's web site highly are much more likely to visit a dealer for a test drive.

J.D. Power's 2003 Dealer Satisfaction with Online Buying Services StudySM showed that dealers received on average 75% more online, new-vehicle leads from manufacturer web sites than they did in 2002. In the new survey, after evaluating a manufacturer's site, 66% of those rating the site as 'outstanding' increased their likelihood to test drive a vehicle from that make, compared to only 21% of those rating the site as average or lower.

Manufacturers' web sites are continuing to improve. 'Because of ever-increasing consumer expectations, it's not enough to simply maintain a good site. Even if a site performed well in the past, standing still can mean falling behind' says Senior Director of Research Dennis Galbraith. The major challenge for web designers is to make a large amount of information easily accessible without cluttering the initial pages. Highly-rated manufacturer sites tend to draw in the viewer with a crisp new-vehicle 'beauty shot' and yet provide enough detail so shoppers leave the home page confident of where they are going next.

Wave 1 of the study includes data from more than 10,200 Internet users who intend to purchase a vehicle within the next two years.

J.D. Power's own web site is at www.jdpower.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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