The right balance – car remarketing in the digital world
The introduction of smartphones and computers has given birth to the age of enablement – with people able to do just about anything with a click of a button.
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In most cases, this is a positive thing – speeding up typically mundane tasks. But in some cases it presents certain challenges, like in the car remarketing sector.
A key challenge is how to ensure the digital space is working cohesively for buyers and vendors in a physical space as well.
Philip Nothard, customer insight and strategy director at Cox Automotive UK, says the current challenge in the industry is ensuring there is a balance between the online and offline world.
Philip Nothard, customer insight and strategy director at Cox Automotive UK
“I think it’s a case of getting that blend between digital and physical cohesive so it’s allowing buyers, vendors to operate in the digital space using technology as well as being able to use it in a physical space that it works cohesively together and they are not two separate streams,” Nothard says.
From a remarketing perspective, says Northard, being able to do things online is helping fit a customer’s needs of doing things more quickly and efficiently.
"We understand and we know that vendors and the sellers of a vehicle are moving further upstream so in terms of the people wanting to go direct to the end user there’s a lot of that taking place, both the buyers and the sellers want faster decisions and a more efficient process."
Philip Nothard
Though the online space is enabling processes in the car remarketing sector to be completed more efficiently, a car remains a physical entity that a customer would want to inspect and test before committing to the purchase.
Even though this is the case, Nothard predicts there will be an increase in the volume of vehicles sold online, which means the technology to present the cars will have to support this.
“Cars are still a physical entity, and it’s still a subjective product. It’s still unique, every one is different. We as a business forecast that there will be an increase in volume of vehicles being sold online as opposed to physical. The online experience will dominate more in the future and therefore the technology has to be better to present products.”
This extends to how cars are imaged and what data is available online to consumers, continues Northard. “The way you image products, the information you hold in the digital space needs to be better so we are working very much for that at the minute. We are supporting that and we understand that technology in the remarketing world will become ever more agnostic and data will become ever more transparent.”
Nothard agrees that the move to digital is showing no sign of slowing down, and evolving with that is important for business.
“We can’t as a business and as an industry say we are there now, because digital technology is moving quicker than everything else, so we are constantly looking at where it is heading rather than where it is today. We need to look at the future at all times,” he concludes.
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Vehicle Remarketing