Retailers need to face a host of challenges if they are to continue to thrive from joined-up customer touchpoints to emerging Chinese manufacturers, Sally Foote, managing director of carwow, will tell attendees at the Automotive Management Live 2022 event.

Foote will host a seminar as part of the event’s Operational Excellence focus when she will draw on the site’s data insights to show why some would-be car buyers are lost and choose a different dealer instead.

AM Live takes place at Birmingham NEC on 10 November.

As part of the session, Foote will explain it’s not just great looking and easy to use websites which matter but the way a business is designed to ensure each customer has an incredible experience regardless of what their touchpoints might be by having excellent control and access to customer data across the organisation for a connected journey.  

Foote will explain how the power of AI and machine learning provides the insights dealers need to deliver meaningful experiences. This year carwow partnered with Re:infer utilising its conversational data intelligence platform to constantly review enquiries. 

She said: “We’ve discovered 100 ‘intents’ or specific behaviours that help conversion. For example, responding within an hour increases the likelihood of a sale by a huge 30%, while personalised follow-ups are 2.3 times more likely to result in a purchase.” 

AM Live is free for retailer and manufacturer delegates by booking a place at https://www.automotivemanagementlive.co.uk/

Foote will also explore current consumer behaviours and the impact of emerging trends. As consumers reacted to new car supply issues, carwow saw a whopping 113% increase in the number of users who enquired about a used car, after initially searching for a new car. Given that 64% of its customers start their search without an equal preference for new or used, its most successful dealers take a more joined-up approach to acquiring customers, regardless of what age of vehicle they’re shopping for.  

Other trends Foote will explore include supply issues, EV ownerships and the arrival of Chinese OEMs. Supply pressures have impacted where dealers are buying their stock from and over the last six months carwow has seen an 80% increase in the number of dealers bidding on vehicles through its Stock Sourcing solution. Whilst the shift to electric vehicles is well established, carwow has recently seen a slight slowdown, not in consideration (which still sits at 45% up from 37% in 2019) but in conversion. Some of that will be driven by supply, but customers are also increasingly talking about energy pricing concerns. Meanwhile, Chinese cars, often dismissed a few years ago, now have fresh, modern designs, with their teams led by well-known European designers. 

Foote said: “The Chinese manufacturers have distinct advantages in access to raw materials for batteries and given the issues with supply chains we’ve seen recently, this alone could be a big differentiator for their growth in Europe. I think dealers should be getting familiar with those Chinese brands now, and certainly not underestimating their draw for consumers.” 

Foote also reassured the sector that by connecting more than 10.8 million UK users with trusted dealers and brands, carwow occupies the middle ground between brands, dealers and consumers.

She said: “With us, there's no race to the bottom. Best practice for us looks like sharing game-changing insights with our dealer partners to help them improve their processes, boost their customers’ experiences and ultimately generate more sales.

“Car buyers configure thousands of cars on carwow every day, across 36 brands and hundreds of models. This gives us a unique and ever-evolving birds-eye view of customer demand, brand perception and sentiment. For example, we can see what customers configure versus what they go on to buy. 

“The platform shows exactly where customers are being lost and/or acquired, who in the market is doing well and achieving incremental sales or - for want of a better phrase – ‘who’s really eating your lunch?’”