New Car Buyers' Web-Surfing Habits Reveal a Pattern

(MoneyWatch)  The Internet remains a popular place for car shoppers. But few actually buy cars that way and, according to a new survey by J.D. Power and Associates, consumers use automotive brand sites differently than they do third-party auto sites such as Edmunds and Kelley Blue Book.

Visiting a company website is not necessarily a useful clue to what purchase decisions consumers will ultimately make: Just four percent of Saturn surfers actually bought a Saturn. (I'm well aware that the company's implosion has something to do with this.)

The 2009 Web Site Performance Tools Report, prepared as part of a new partnership with web marketing company Compete Inc., says that both types of website attract the same approximate numbers: 66 percent of all new-vehicle buyers. Three in four of buyers will shop the Internet before making a commitment, and they go to AutoTrader.com, Edmunds.com or KBB.com for product reviews, trade-in information and inventory search. Some 55 percent of visitors to KBB.com visit the trade-in pages, and 61 percent of AutoTrader.com clicks are for inventory search. At Edmunds, 31 percent are accessing online reviews.

Ford, Honda and Toyota sites get solid traffic. But according to the report, "[A]mong buyers who visit specific brand Web sites, sales close rates vary widely." GMC visitors bought a company vehicle 34 percent of the time, but Saturn was 30 percent less likely to score a sale.

It's highly likely that the sophisticated webmasters at all these sites track which features get the most traffic. But they may not be paying attention to (or differentiating) site visitors who go on to put money down on cars.

According to Arianne Walker, director of marketing and media research at J.D. Power, studying the patterns of those actual buyers, "both automotive brands and third-party automotive publishers may optimize their sites to provide the information used most often by the visitors they care most about. For manufacturers, improving sites may help maintain in-market shoppers throughout the shopping process. For third-party sites, improvements may help attract in-market new-vehicle buyers, thus increasing advertising opportunities on the sites." As might be expected, new car buyers increase their web use as they get closer to a decision. At six months before purchase, one in four visits a manufacturer or third party site. But during the actual month the decision is made, 34 percent go on company sites and 33 percent visit third parties.

According to Skip Streets of Compete Inc., in that crucial final month buyers heavily access the vehicle configuration tools on branded websites to custom-design the car they'll take home. Only 10,000 people a year will go all the way to a purchase online without visiting a dealer, but most will come to those dealers armed with web printouts and web-sourced information. Streets recommends that websites maintain easy to find and easy to use tools to help consumers through that process.

The survey was based on purchases made between April 2007 and March 2009.

Photo: Flickr/Emilio Labrador