Consumers might not be thrilled about the higher prices and fewer vehicle choices found on dealership websites during the current inventory shortage, but they seem to like digital retail itself.
Cox Automotive's Angela Drake, during a May 26 American Financial Services Association business partner webinar, said consumer satisfaction with prices and selection had declined as dealerships' inventories dried up but that shoppers hadn't changed their views on the overall experience.
Gains made in customer satisfaction with the rise of online retailing remain, she said, attributing customers' favorable opinion to the efficiency of a digital process.
"The experience continues to be a good one for them," said Drake, Cox Automotive senior market research manager.
Drake's analysis was a reminder of the results from the 12th annual Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study that Automotive News covered in January.
Buyer satisfaction with the shopping experience reached a record high in 2020 before falling off in 2021, according to that survey, which polled consumers who bought or leased a vehicle between September 2020 and August 2021.
In 2021, 66 percent of all survey respondents described themselves as highly satisfied, down from 72 percent in 2020, which was a historical high for the survey. But even with 2021's lower inventory and higher prices, more of last year's survey respondents called themselves highly satisfied compared with the 2019 survey, in which 60 percent of respondents said they were highly satisfied.
The decline in the proportion of highly satisfied customers was less severe among new-vehicle buyers, with 71 percent of them highly satisfied in 2021, down from 74 percent in 2020 but up from 62 percent in 2019.
"Everything was streamlined; no time wasted haggling over price; vehicle was custom-ordered online; just go to dealership to finalize purchase; wait 2 months for delivery; go back to dealership to pick up vehicle," a consumer told Cox during the 2021 survey.
