Online used car shopping
Online Used Car Shopping is an act of using the Internet to shop for a national or imported used car. Several advantages include the ability to see many options, compare prices, conduct research, and shop from home.
Premier online cars shopping sites such as Yahoo! Autos , Edmunds.com, Web2Carz.com and Cars.com provide the ability to search for and compare used cars as well as do significant research on safety, comfort and other factors that go into car purchase decision. Following selection, the buyer fills out an online form to contact the seller or call the seller directly if a phone number is provided.
The biggest advantage of Online car shopping is the ability to see the photos of the car, compare one car to another and make an informed decision AbOUT which seller to contact without ever leaving your home. There are however some disadvantages, including the inability to see the car physically, stand next to it, and know the feel of the car.
In attempt to address the disadvantages of not seeing the car physically, some sites experiment with ways to search for and view cars, for example HotSwap uses online video search and PREview of cars, Web2Carz.com uses what they call a Photo-Lot approach and offer Consumer Car and Dealership Reviews. This is a new generation of Online Car Shopping sites with focus on usability and in general follow a movement more commonly known as Web 2.0.
Three Categories of Automotive Websites
With exclusion of parts, hobbies and niche sites one can place any Online Car Shopping website into one of three categories. The categories are:
1. Full Service Automotive Portal • cars.com • web2carz.com • carsdirect.com
2. Vertical Focus Lead Generation • carloan.com • carpricesecrets.com • carsbelowinvoice.com
3. Advice and Redirect Lead Generation (Infomercials) • carshoppingtips.com • insidercarsecrets.com
Full Service Automotive Portal
This is the most extensive service offering to the consumer. The sites in this category provide a wide range of services, however it can be difficult and confusing to navigate them. For a site to be in this classification it has to offer a New Car Quote Service, Used Car Search Service and a Car Finance Service. Many sites offer additional features such as New Car Research and FSBO (For Sale By Owner).
Vertical Focus Lead Generation
Sites in this category usually focus on only one of the three basic verticals. Some provide the New Car Quote service while others focus on the Car Financing vertical. Sites in this category market themselves as having some sort of an edge that the visitor will gain if they use their services. Here is a quick way to tell a reputable site from a façade site: send them an email and see if you get a reply. A heartbeat on the other end of the Internet is usually a good sign.
Advice and Redirect Lead Generation
The “Infomercials” sites appear to the reader like they offer advice but in reality the entire site is designed to entice the reader to click on one of the text links on the site. Almost every text link is in fact a paid advertising link. Here is a quick way to tell if a text link is an Ad: Just right click on the link and select Properties. If the URL is not a clean URL (e.g. http://www.sitename.com/page_name) it is most likely an Ad.
External links
See also
- Online shop