New car shoppers using the Internet to research their purchases value product-related information over price data. That’s according to the 2005 edition of the New Autoshopper.com Study, released last week by J.D. Power and Associates.
The study found that 79% of automotive Internet users said their choice was affected by product information they found online. That matches with 78% who said Web sites influenced how much they paid or offered for a new car.
Overall, 67% of new-car buyers reported using the Internet as a resource before buying, up slightly from 64% in 2004. Nearly all respondents—89%-- said they visited a search engine or Web portal in doing their online research. While 74% of those polled reported visiting at least one independent Web site—most often early in their decision process—they also said they get their most reliable product information from the carmakers’ official sites and turn to independent sites mostly for pricing information.
“There is tremendous market share at stake in the battle to turn site visitors into buyers,” said Dennis Galbraith, senior director of online marketing solutions at J.D. Power. “Manufacturers will continue to move hundreds of millions of marketing dollars toward their online efforts and will become more efficient marketers in the process.”
