8:55 am, January 30, 2017
A WAVE of new car price increases prompted by the weak pound should place a new degree of emphasis on effectively promoting motor finance in 2017, says iVendi.
James Tew, CEO, said that it was important that potential customers were not deterred by headline price rises when the actual affordability of new cars remained, in most cases, very attractive.
‘The SMMT has already said that it expects to see increases of two to three per cent in the first few months of the year and if, as seems not unlikely, the pound weakens further against the dollar and the euro, there will be pressure for further rises.
‘This has the potential to put off customers who were thinking of buying a new car but the solution is to ensure that the affordability of the vehicle through your motor finance offering is stressed wherever possible, but especially online.’
Tew said that web design had a large part to play in this, ensuring that wherever a car appeared, a sample motor finance offer was included along with tools such as a finance calculator and an eligibility checker.
‘We advise dealers and manufacturers to ‘anchor’ the finance offer next to the vehicle so that even if the customer navigates away from the finance page, the key facts of the finance offer remain clearly visible next to the vehicle.
‘It is especially important to ensure that these web pages work well on smartphones and tablets. The majority of web access to car sites of all kinds now takes place through mobile devices and it is essential that customers can easily see the finance offer when using a smaller screen on the move.’
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