Joe Pickard takes a look at the websites of the UK’s top 10 car manufacturers by volume, to see how they are utilising their online platforms for the ease of the consumer.
As consumers increasingly conduct their initial car research online, manufacturers are investing growing amounts into their online presences.
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With many websites including interactive finance calculators to give an indication of the types of finance package available to consumers, as well as car configurators, Motor Finance investigates how leading OEMs are accommodating this trend. The five factors considered were contact, car configurator, transfer to dealer, finance calculator and aesthetic.
Contact
The contact page was rated on how many points of contact and the types of contact the manufacturer had. Live chat options gave a higher score than a contact form, and ease of access to contact information was also rated.
Car configurator
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By GlobalDataCar configurators were rated on numerous factors, including ease of use, the amount of customisation available, how well it linked to a finance calculator, and options to test drive or purchase.
Transfer to dealer
The transfer to dealer was rated on ease of finding a dealership, where it was located on the website, and how many different options were available to search for. For example, some manufacturers gave the option to search for dealerships based on whether they offered servicing, or whether they stocked commercial vehicles.
Finance calculator
The main factors considered for finance calculators were their general responsiveness and how they worked alongside the rest of the website. For example, we found it beneficial if the finance calculator could be accessed alongside the car configurator as well as on the main finance page.
Aesthetic
We rated the general aesthetic of the site and how it made the site more user-friendly. We assessed whether or not manufacturers were making the best use of different types of media on their site, and if this improved the overall experience.
http://www.bmw.co.uk/en_GB/index.html
https://www.mercedes-benz.co.uk/passengercars.html
https://www.toyota.co.uk/index.json
Conclusion
Motor Finance found that there were certain common strengths and weaknesses in the majority of the websites studied.
A common strength was that most manufacturers had their websites well optimised for mobiles. Most mobile sites were easy to navigate and organised in a way that the information was not cluttered. In some cases, the mobile sites worked better than the desktop sites.
While this reflects the growing trend for increased mobile internet browsing, there is still a large number of people who will visit the desktop site. In some cases it seemed as if manufacturers had developed their mobile websites but had neglected their desktop sites.
Another common trend was the overall weakness of the contact pages. In most cases this page was located at the bottom of the homepage. We felt that the contact methods were also limited in some cases, offering just a general telephone number and an online contact form.
However, this was not the case for all the manufacturers, as many had a live chat option. This was best implemented when it could be accessed from numerous points on the site, such as alongside the car configurator or the finance calculator. We felt that this should be industry standard as it was a convenient method of contact.
Motor Finance found that the highest-scoring manufacturers were those that utilised their capabilities across their entire sites. For example, we found it useful to have an easily accessible live chat box at any point on the site, or when the finance calculator worked alongside the car configurator and was adjusted automatically dependent on the features added to the car.
