What do you want your payment tools to do?
The title says it all. What do you want the payment tools on your website to do? Do you want them to help people buy a car online? Get a payment estimate? Browse your inventory they can afford? This is a trick question.
Of course, you want your website to do all of these things: help people complete as much of the car buying process online as they can, get a payment estimate, and shop within their budget.
The key distinction required is understanding how to prioritize those items, and how to guide people correctly into the process that best suits their needs.
The percentage of people that are willing to completely transact a car purchase online remains in the single digits. The vast majority just want payment information, and they want it quickly.
Check out this data from a Nissan dealership and TradePending customer which really makes the point.
In the last 30 days, TradePending’s Payments tool captured 79 leads from their website, resulting in 8 sales.
Co-existing on their site is the Buy@Home digital retailing tool, which captured 6 leads and resulted in 0 sales. Zero. Nada (not NADA).
These results are not unique. We see this with every single dealership.
Please, until there are massive changes in consumer behavior, prioritize making your website into a marketing machine that turns browsers into buyers. You do this with conversion tools built specifically to turn monthly payment hunters into leads into buyers.
And yes, keep the digital retailing tools for the small group that want that experience, but don’t confuse getting a quick payment estimate with buying a car online.