Consumers want more personalization in online auto shopping, survey says

Most dealership websites fail to meet expectations that customers have for a personalized experience while shopping online, concludes a new study by Affinitiv, a marketing technology company for automakers and dealers.

In the survey of 1,000 recent car buyers, released Monday, 76 percent of respondents said they thought a personalized experience was important on a dealership website. But just 26 percent said dealership websites actually provided a personalized experience.

Affinitiv's study also analyzed 100 random U.S. dealership websites, and only 47 percent of them proactively recommend vehicles of interest based on the customer's browsing behavior, Affinitiv said.

"Considering its high importance, recommending vehicles with relevant features is one of the single greatest opportunities for dealer websites to increase conversion rates and better meet the expectations of online shoppers," Doug Van Sach, Affinitiv's vice president of strategy and analytics, told Automotive News. "This study reinforces that there are gaps in the customer experience which leave dealers vulnerable."

Sixty-two percent of survey respondents said finding a vehicle with a specific monthly payment was as, or more, important than finding a vehicle in a specific price range; 58 percent said they wanted to get vehicle recommendations based on features of interest. None of the websites sampled by Affinitiv recommended vehicles based on specific features of interest, Affinitiv said.