How to improve your car dealership’s online retailing strategy – Lisette Gole, Head of Auto Retail at Google

Despite the industry’s inventory and chip uncertainty, retail automotive has continued to shift and evolve online. Today’s successful dealerships are offering the entire vehicle purchase process through your mobile device. On today’s show, we’re pleased to welcome back Lissette Gole who is the Head of Automotive Retail at Google. Her nearly 20-year career has been dedicated to the automotive industry, so on today’s show, she’ll take us through today’s top trends and ways you can improve your online retailing.

Gole says she recognizes today that a lot of consumers want to have an omnichannel or hybrid experience. She sees a lot of shoppers move fully online, with expectations constantly changing. Gole says instead of moving into the why start looking at the how.

In 2018, 1% of vehicles were sold completely through online retailing. In 2020, that number increased to 10%. Search trends have increased over the last 18 months, with a peak in April, and have since remained higher and steady than any year prior. Gole says the first thing you can do is look at your keywords and campaign strategies. Those need to evolve with customer increased interest.

Online retailing is broken into three key areas: media, user experience, and data and technology. Gole recommends auditing your mobile website. Access your mobile site’s load time. Data shows if your website is loading for more than 4 seconds, you’re losing 40% of your shoppers. She says, it’s not an easy process, but it’s worth it in the end.

There is still a role for the salesperson says, Gole. Customers still want to be able to pick up the phone and get reassurance. While these transactions are happening online, she says we still need that concierge service.

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