Salesman in a click

Among late-model used-vehicle buyers who use the 'net while shopping, internet use has surpassed other shopping methods as the source for locating the vehicle a buyer ultimately purchases, according to the JD Power and Associates 2007 Used Autoshopper.com Study, writes sister site MarketingCharts.

Online vehicle locators like Autotrader.com, CarMax.com, Cars.com and eBay Motors are increasingly leading consumers to the actual vehicle they buy. And consumer-generated content (CGC) is dramatically affecting internet usage for used-car buying, according to the study.

Among the findings:

• In 2007, nearly one in four buyers (23 percent) of late-model used vehicles used an internet vehicle locator or online classified ad services to find the vehicle they purchased - a 44 percent increase since 2006.
• 2007 is the first year that internet use surpasses all other shopping methods in locating the used vehicle that a buyer ultimately purchases.
• The proportion of used-vehicle buyers who use the internet in the shopping process and who ultimately found the vehicle they purchased via that method is 10 percentage points greater than the number of shoppers who found their vehicle through the second-most-popular method, visiting dealer lots.

"[A]s the number of websites specializing in the used-vehicle market continues to grow, and the use of video, photos and improved dealer inventory management tools proliferates, we can expect that consumer use of the internet for used-vehicle shopping and for actually finding a desired vehicle online will continue to increase," said Jon Osborn, research director at JD Power and Associates.

MarketingCharts provides additional findings (CGC-related and gender-based).