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Enable Considered Purchases Through Digital Commerce

Two reasons the rewards outweigh the risks of digital commerce and customer engagement

• You may not have a choice.

• If you won’t do it, your competitors will. 

Build three core competencies to enable digital commerce for considered purchases

• A customer-led buying process. 

  • The good part about buying a car online was the flexibility of the dealer I ultimately bought from, which differentiated them from other dealers. They were willing to negotiate pricing, confirm inventory availability and schedule a test drive via email. Use digital to enable self-service. Encourage sales to respect customer preferences.

• A digital product catalog and rich product content. 

  • The bad part of the online buying process was the hand-off from manufacturers’ sites comprised of rich content and immersive experiences to dealer sites that showed available inventory but  lacked 360-degree video, high quality images or detailed product information. Use content marketing to enrich commerce.

• A common system for tracking buyer interactions. 

  • The ugly part of the buying experience was the ONSLAUGHT of emails, mobile messages and phone calls trigerred by my online vehicle search. Post-sale, I got the same survey request three times. Use CRM, marketing automation or campaign management tools to orchestrate multichannel interactions.