7:09 am, May 23, 2020
Analysis of website traffic among dealer clients by Bluesky Interactive has revealed ‘exciting signs of recovering market interest’.
The automotive website specialist said it had been examining the data to understand how prospective car buyers’ shopping habits have changed during lockdown – and how they’re continuing to change.
The Bluesky team compared levels during the first four weeks of lockdown with those of the next four weeks and then from the seven days after restrictions were eased.
Finally, the analysts examined the rate of website visitors converting to inquiries, in order to get an insight into future buying intent.
Operations director Tony Hilton said: ‘The results were interesting. There is a very clear upward curve in visitor levels towards pre-lockdown levels.
‘Whilst, as expected, we’ve seen significant drop-offs since lockdown – with traffic more than halving in some instances – the outlook is now looking increasingly positive.
‘In particular, the conversion rates last week were consistently higher than before lockdown, demonstrating that people are considering buying cars again.
‘It definitely shows a strong willing – which bodes well for dealers in the run-up to opening again.’
However, although the statistics are looking positive, Bluesky said that even after June 1 – when it’s likely that dealerships will be allowed to reopen – things were unlikely to return to normal.
‘We’re likely to have social distancing measures for some time,’ said Hilton.
‘That’s why so many clients are embracing our e-commerce solution AutoTransact, and why we are introducing booking calendars and other useful tools to help facilitate dealership walk-ins.’
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