AutoFi Improves Conversions By Introducing Retail Pathways
AutoFi’s product – Retail Pathways, provides a richer experience for automotive shoppers visiting the dealership’s website. AutoFi customers that implemented Pathways over the last two months increased leads and credit applications by 34% month-over-month. The dealerships received one hundred new leads and credit applications per store.
Why are Retail Pathways necessary?
Every online shopper has, at one time or another, visited a website and experienced information overload. This is primarily due to a multitude of call-to-action (CTA) buttons on the site.
Customer demands have shifted since car dealers first launched their websites. Creating an online presence that showcases the unique value proposition of each dealership was not enough. Today’s shoppers want to find the majority, if not all, of the information necessary to make a vehicle purchase online.
Many auto dealership websites are cobbled together without using Google’s best practices.
Google lays out the four core fundamentals of automotive digital retail necessary to achieve a delightful consumer experience. Dealership websites must be fast, integrated, reliable, and engaging. Similarly, calls-to-action must be straightforward and dependable. This means no broken links or website dead-ends, as well as unique calls-to-action (CTAs) to avoid confusion.
What do customers need?
Today’s website shoppers visit a site based on four determining factors, or motivations:
- I want to see something
- I want to do something
- I want to learn something
- I want to buy something
Auto dealers adapted their websites to meet changing consumer demands. This included wanting more information and needing more in-depth online experiences. Most of all, vehicle shoppers wanted an informative and convenient online experience that didn’t require an in-person visit.
A delightful consumer experience diminishes when dealership websites have multiple CTA buttons. For instance, there are options to evaluate a trade-in, research the car, and calculate payments. Sometimes an additional chat window pops up with a message to speak with a salesperson or assist with questions.
Are more CTAs truly a good experience for customers?
Death by dead-ends
As discussed above, Google recommends a streamlined website experience for automotive retail. Humans tend to suffer from the choice paradox.
They don’t mind choosing between a carrot or celery. But when given the choice of spinach, lettuce, tomato, avocado, rhubarb, radish, and a piece of fruit, their heads spin with indecision.
According to the Harvard Business Review, when shoppers have an overwhelming amount of choices, they tend not to make a choice or when they do, dissatisfaction increases.
When it comes to choice, less is more. Shoppers are better off with clear choices, not multiple choices.
A well-performing CTA guides users towards goal conversion.
An overabundance of entry points and CTA buttons that result in dead-ends increases site abandonment. Customers end up with a limited buying experience when the next logical step is missing.
They could evaluate a trade-in, calculate a payment, or request more information, but then the journey ends.
How do Retail Pathways help?
AutoFi improved website functionality by helping customers engage in a more meaningful way. Multiple dead-ends motivated the team to find a solution that kept visitors engaged. The goal is to improve website penetration rates so customers could delve deeper into the buying experience online.
The AutoFi platform includes three entry points that guide shoppers through a logical user interface.
The three major pathways for the car dealer’s Vehicle Detail Page (VDP) and Search Results Page (SRP).
- Request more information – opens an opportunity to request more information from the dealer
- Schedule a test drive – opens an opportunity to schedule a test drive for available vehicle inventory
- Calculate your payment (Get Best Price) – opens an opportunity to personalize a payment
These pathways address the key motivations behind every online shopping experience – to see, do, and learn something. When customers are given what they need, it’s easier to convert them to a sale.
August statistics
Websites that have a “calculate your payment” CTA that leads into the AutoFi digital retail solution have an overwhelming number of clicks.
When dealers took advantage of these pathways – they saw resounding results.
- Click-through-rate increased by 22% month-over-month
- Top-performing dealers click-through-rate increased 42% month-over-month
- Leads increased by 29% month-over-month
- AutoFi’s top 20 dealers gained an additional 41 leads submitted
- Total leads and credit applications have grown 34% to 100 per store
When a shopper enters the AutoFi platform via any of the CTA pathways, their vehicle purchase experience improves. No more dead-ends!
Once the first three customer needs are solved, the next logical step is to buy a car! All that’s left is to come into the dealership to finalize the sale and pick up the car. It’s that easy.
If you want Retail Pathways on your site, visit AutoFi’s website and start by booking a demo today.