If you ever bought something online than you might already know how interesting and easy that is, and probably never got back to the old way of car buying after that. But if you didn’t than you still don’t know how many doors the online car sales might open.
Indeed, finding anyone of a working age who has never bought anything directly from an online store would probably be more difficult. And does anyone buy books in an actual bookstore anymore? Online shopping has become so pervasive that all the popular online selling platforms have gotten a lot of competitors, who come of course with something new and free futures and advertising, that’s quite a lot for the online selling actually. That’s given rise to almost an entire industry imagining the demise of the automobile dealer, analysts far and wide predicting that soon, very soon, consumers will tire of the pressure perpetuated by rapacious salespeople and simply cut them out of the purchase decision completely.
The reasoning behind that supposition is backed by survey after survey, indicating that haggling with the “closer” at a car dealership is about as inviting as a root canal. The exact percentages differ from study to study and country to country, but the latest says 75 per cent of consumers wish they didn’t have to visit a dealership and would prefer to conduct the entire process — yes, including the haggling over financing and insurance — over the Internet. Even the industry’s own surveys — say up to a third of consumers would like to complete the entire buying process online.
That’s it, then, say the futurists; the future of automobile sales is online. End. Of. Discussion.
