DIGITALRETAILING

CASE STUDY

OUR CONCLUSION | A successfully optimized digital retailing experience can allow a dealership to find qualified buyers, simplify the shopping process, and build lasting customer relationships.

AT A GLANCE

Online shopping is becoming the

new way of buying. We want to

ensure our clients can provide

an engaging digital retailing

experience that is easy and fast

for their customers to make a

purchase from the comfort of

their own home.

By understanding customer

expectations and user behavior,

our clients’ online shopping

experience can be improved

with the use of digital retailing

tools that will offer the possibility

of a direct pipeline to qualified

and engaged leads.

Develop a successful digital

retailing experience by tailoring

the online, creative, and sales

processes into an integrated

experience that includes a

consistent creative identity and

a sales staff that’s dedicated to

connecting the online and on-lot

buying process.

! CHALLENGE ! HYPOTHESIS ! SOLUTION

As digital retailing tools grow in popularity, optimal user experience is more important than ever for quality lead generation. With their unique ability to simplify the biggest pain points of a car-buying process all from the comfort of a prospective buyer’s home, digital retailing tools offer the possibility of a direct pipeline to qualified and engaged leads by tailoring the online, creative, and sales processes into an integrated experience.

DIGITALRETAILING

EXPECTATIONS OF AN ONLINE SHOPPERDiffering from an on-lot customer, a user who’s shopping for a car online is expecting a website that allows for:

The expectations of an online car shopper extend to both creative messaging and an educated sales staff.

Specifically, digital creative assets must explain why the online shopping experience meets the user’s primary needs in a personalized, branded manner. Without a sales staff that’s trained on what makes an online car shopper unique, a dealership runs the risk of missing out on a qualified buyer.

DIFFERENCES IN USER BEHAVIOR BETWEEN SRP/VDP All inventory pages are not created equal — at least when it comes to user behavior. SRPs and VDPs are often grouped together and referred to simply as “inventory pages.” When it comes to optimizing a site to match user behavior, however, SRPs and VDPs must be treated differently to maximize lead generation and click-through rate.

After testing the click-through rate of digital retailing CTAs vs. first-party CTAs on nearly 30 automotive websites over a two-month period, we found that:

VDPs are 27.4% more likely than SRPs to produce a digital retailing CTA click.

Seamless SearchCapabilities

Easy-to-find and useful SRP filters that allow the

user to select the criteria they want in a vehicle

across all devices.

Accessible PriceShopping

Guided ShoppingExperience

Easily compare the MSRP of various models, trims, additional features, etc.

Clear, accessible, and direct calls-to-action (CTAs) that guide the

user to his/her desired outcome.

DIGITALRETAILING

With such a large discrepancy in click-through rates between VDPs and SRPs, we can deduce that there are distinct behavioral differences when a user visits these pages:

MAPPING THE SHOPPER’S PATH How exactly do we optimize our inventory pages to align with shopper intent? To answer that question, it’s important to understand the on-site, SRP-to-VDP shopper’s path:

1. Search Results Page – Shopper narrows their online shopping experience, down to the model of interest.

2. Search Results Page – Filtered to the model(s) of interest, the shopper compares pricing across trims/years all within a single SRP.

3. Vehicle Description Page – Buyer intent has spiked, shopper has focused their purchase behavior on a specific vehicle, and readiness to convert has peaked.

A user who’s ready to convert at this stage in the shopper’s path is interested in a high-level, pricing information and a form that requires minimal information and effort.

Possible Conversion Point

Further along in the shopper path, this user has opted into learning more about one specific vehicle and is more willing to provide additional personal information related

to financing and/or vehicle trade-in.

Possible Conversion Point

VDP User – More Engaged Buyer – Lower in Sales Funnel – Ready to Begin Purchasing Process

SRP User – Conducting Initial Price & Model Research– Higher in Sales Funnel

DIGITALRETAILING

CTA VERBIAGE AND BUYER INTENTKnowing where users are likely to convert and what conversion process they’re willing to complete, we can now strategically align the CTA verbiage and required form information.

After testing the click-through rate of different CTA verbiage on nearly 30 automotive websites over a two-month period, we identified:

The click-through rate of “Build My Payment” indicates that a VDP user is ready to begin the buying process for one specific vehicle.

On the SRPs, “Build My Payment” was the most clicked CTA language, but it only had a CTR of 0.91%, which can be explained by SRPs containing too many redundant CTAs that confuse a user who’s more interested in general information than beginning the buying process.

Overall, “Build My Payment” is an ideal example of a VDP CTA that entices users by matching CTA language with the shopper’s stage in the buying funnel. In contrast, SRP CTAs must be simple and directly speak to the user’s shopping phase where general price information is most important.

“Build My Payment” CTA language generated a VDP click 88.9% more frequently than all other CTA languages.

SRP PAGE

VDP PAGE

DIGITALRETAILING

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About Stream Case Studies | Every business is unique, and at Stream Companies, we understand that means unique obstacles when it comes to your advertising objectives.

Because no two obstacles are exactly alike, we’ve had to develop some pretty creative ways to help our partners reach their goals – even if that means overcoming some of the most

challenging obstacles.

OPTIMIZE YOUR DIGITAL RETAILING PROCESS In the ever-changing automotive industry, a successfully optimized digital retailing experience can allow a dealership to find qualified buyers, simplify the shopping process, and build lasting customer relationships. A truly customer-centric buying experience cannot exist without an integrated approach that includes a consistent creative identity and a sales staff that’s dedicated to connecting the online and on-lot buying process.

Interested in learning how Stream Companies can help optimize your digital retailing experience? Be sure contact our team today!