Some dealers might say they’d rather not see all that pricing and incentive information on the Internet and in the hands of customers, but dealers who embrace data and change can thrive and prosper to make their customers very happy. According to the Business Development Bank of Canada, an increasing amount of research is done online even if consumers don’t buy online. Approximately 70% of buyers do online research prior to buying.
Furthermore, 26% of new car buyers in Canada (of the 80,000 polled by Maritz research) opt not to do a test drive. This big change in car-buying trend is also brought about by the increasing availability of information online. So far, more than 142,777 Canadians have made use of Unhaggle’s services in one form or another. In the United States, dealers and manufacturers have been even quicker to embrace this sort of strategy like TrueCar and CarWoo.
Honda Remains Victorious in Online and Offline Sales
Using a recent data set of cars sold in Canada through Unhaggle.com in 2013, various trends and patterns were found when it comes to online car buying habits of Canadians. Not surprisingly, the most popular car make sold was Honda, comprising 15.15% of total sales. Toyota and Subaru came in at a close second,12.8% and 8.8% of total sales cars respectively.
Delving deeper into the data, we found that Sedans and SUV’s were largely popular among Canadian online car buyers in 2013, with the Honda Civics and Accords as well as the CR-V selling large numbers. For Hyundai, Elantra’s were the most popular sell and with Corolla leading for Toyota. The Subaru Forester also emerging to be more and more popular this year, selling 47 new cars online. Mazda’s weren’t uncommon either, selling 61 cars including the Mazda 3, 5 and 6.
Audi Takes the Lead in Luxury Car Category
When looking at Canadians buying luxury vehicles online, the patterns match what you would expect from cars bought traditionally from the dealership. When looking at the big four, namely Audi, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz. Audi reigned supreme with 31% of luxury sales, comprising a majority of Q5’s along with the A3, A4 and A6. BMW was not far behind with 26% of luxury new cars sold, most commonly the 3-Series or X3 SUV. Roughly the same volume of Lexus and Mercedes-Benz cars were sold, comprising 20.9% and 21.9% of total luxury vehicle sales.
Non-Urban Areas Are Adopting Online Car Buying Tools
Focusing on the geography of the sales helps us paint a better picture of the demographics of those using Unhaggle.com in Canada. When looking for the province where online car buying is the most popular, Ontario was far ahead of the curve, with a majority of the sales taking place in this province. However, it is interesting to note that Toronto, Mississauga and Ottawa made up only 36.3% of the total sales in Ontario, indicating that online car buying is also growing in popularity in non-urban areas and suburbs such as Brampton, Burlington, Whitsby and North York. This could be due to the hassle involved in multiple visits to car dealerships, which is taken care of for the customer in the online car buying process.
Alberta and British Columbia also had significant numbers of online car sales, comprising 17.8% and 15.5% of sales in Canada respectively. Calgary and Edmonton dominated the sales in Alberta, with a total of 165 cars sold in these urban cities. British Columbia once again reflects the fact that online car buying is picking up in non-urban areas with areas like Abbotsford, Surrey, Victoria and Coquitlam contributing to the majority of sales.
Closing Thoughts
We find that when the customer sees how slim the profit margins are on new vehicles, the whole sales process is simplified for both parties. Dealers are now realizing very quickly that transparency can win loyal customers, joining the online car sale bandwagon. For a dealer, an educated consumer is one that is much more apt to close the deal, resulting in more sales. For more information feel free to check us out at www.unhaggle.com
