Car buyers are increasingly going online for at least part of their retail journey, but the digital retail landscape varies considerably by brand and region. For the past three years, management and technology consultancy BearingPoint has been monitoring the online automotive sales presence among leading car manufacturers in Europe, the US, and China.
Since the publication of its first New Car Online Sales study in 2021, the number of online shops offering a seamless customer journey has rocketed 109.7%. In deciding whether a customer experience is ‘seamless’, analysts assess the online journey end-to-end along 17 points, spread over three major phases: pre-sales, sales and handover. A score of zero at any one point means the journey was not seamless.
“This is a growing area for OEMs,” states Jonny Stephens, Senior Manager at BearingPoint’s UK automotive practice. “Over the past few years, they have been investing heavily and their performance has improved.”
