Cars.com has a unique, in-market ready to buy car shopping audience – with 29.7 million monthly visits in 2016 alone¹. From our research, we also know that seven out of ten shoppers to Cars.com are undecided on what and where to buy² giving dealers a huge opportunity to influence car shoppers.
Now, how do you speak to car shoppers who may be interested in used inventory, specifically? We worked with a third party research firm to learn more about just that to help you win with used car shoppers.
The used car shopper mindset is a practical one. Car shoppers looking at used inventory are more interested in getting the best car they can for their money in a style that matches their ideal car³.
Vehicle Attributes
We asked used car shoppers what vehicle attributes were most important to them when shopping – reliability came back as the most important. This was followed closely by vehicle value and “best fit” for their lifestyle³ (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Dealer Walk-Ins Analysis, Placed Inc. 2016.
It seems that used car shoppers are more willing to compromise on features for a good deal and value in a used vehicle. This is all great information, but when is the best time to speak to these shoppers to help them make a purchase decision?
Vehicle Consideration
We found that the window of influence is ripe at least one month before their intended point of purchase³ (Figure 2). Note that the percent of people considering a used vehicle is much higher than the percent of purchasers. In part, this is because our location research only includes people that visit a dealership; used buyers from private parties, like Craigslist, did not show up in this study³.
Figure 2. Dealer Walk-ins Analysis. Placed Inc. 2016.
The key takeaway here is that while used inventory consideration increases towards the point of purchase, car shoppers don’t always buy from a dealership when they make their decision to buy. This is why you need to learn when used car shoppers plan to buy to better influence their decision to purchase from you – at least one month out.
Cross Shopping
Let’s take a quick look at cross-shopping by used car shoppers. Used car shoppers highly consider CPO vehicles in their consideration sets³ (Figure 3). Used shoppers are also more likely to trade up to CPO more so than new car shoppers³.
Figure 3. Dealer Walk-ins Analysis. Placed Inc. 2016.
Knowing that the window of influence for a used car shopper is about a month out from their intended point of purchase and that they consider CPO vehicles in their shopping journey is pivotal information in speaking to the used car shopper. It’s up to dealers to best figure out how to target, speak, and influence used car shoppers. Cars.com is here to help.
Our Marketing, Product, and Tech teams continue to make progress driving more meaningful, in-market traffic to our dealers – with the highest quality audience in the business. We will continue to optimize traditional lead delivery for our advertisers while redefining the future of value delivery with on the lot visits, multi-touch attribution, and other quality metrics. We will continue to help you win not only with used car shoppers, but all car shoppers.
[1] Cars.com Internal Data, December 2016.
[2] Cars.com Consumer Metrics Study, December 2016.
[3] Dealer Walk-Ins analysis. Placed Inc. 2016.
