However, it is not just smarter vehicles which are driving increased adoption and use of technology in the car industry. Consumer’s buying habits have changed too, which has led to the car industry online over the last 10 years. These are just some of the points that we will cover today as App Design explores “The Latest Tech Trends in the Automotive Industry.”
The Consumer Buying Process is moving Online
As mentioned in the intro, Consumer Buying habits when buying a vehicle have changed. The traditional method of spending days upon days visiting multiple showrooms quickly being eclipsed by the growth of third-party websites like AutoTrader and DoneDeal. The accessibility of scrolling through thousands of car listings from the comfort of their own living room has led to this shift.
Because of this, we can now see customer footfall in dealerships steadily declining over the last few years. In contrast, research websites have seen a 12% increase over the last few years. This is down to consumers now spending on average 8.7 hours during the car buying/researching process. As this figure is set to rise, third-party website traffic will follow the trend. The more time being spent online will continue to evolve the automotive industry online over the next few years. Recent estimates have suggested 20% of all UK cars are expected to be bought and sold online in the next 10 years. This represents an £81 billion shift!
For now, the digital disruption of third-party sites is driving the shift in the consumer buying process. As more and more people are buying and researching cars online this website traffic shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon and is one of the major tech trends in the automotive industry companies must consider when doing business in future.
appraisee’s step-by-step appraisal process
Paper-Based appraisals to Disappear in Dealerships
Car Dealerships has gradually begun to adapt to tech trends in the automotive industry over the last few years. This has become necessary as footfall continues to fall. However, the appraisal process is still largely paper-based. With the emergence of software like appraisee, the car appraisal process is changing to enter the digital age. Car rental companies are using appraisee to carry out car appraisals using a simple step-by-step process.
The appraisee dealer dashboard, storing all appraisals in one place.
Dealerships can capture an appraisal on their phone which can be immediately sent to the sales manager who can come back with a price. All of the dealerships appraisals are then stored in the cloud. The process only takes a few minutes and revolutionizes a once timely and paper-based business process, to a simplified and speedy digital appraisal.
Appraisee has also launched a new product, PriceMyCar, further enhancing the digital experience for customers and dealership staff. This app enables potential customers who land on a dealership
appraisee/PriceMyCar Chat feature
website to accurately appraise their cars, using the PriceMyCar app. The benefits are two-fold for both the consumer and the dealer. The consumer saves hours of time which could have been spent waiting at a garage. Meanwhile, dealers get pre-qualified leads which they can communicate with on the one-to-one chat feature.
With dealerships increasingly adopting new innovative software like appraisee and PriceMyCar, rival competitors will soon follow to avoid lagging behind.
The Emergence of In-Car Apps
An example of an In-Car GPS app
With the latest car models brimming with software, the car industry will continue to look at In-Car apps to enhance the user experience of driving their car. Data is now gathered through the Internet of Things(IoT) and other means to offer added service to drivers through these apps. Today, we see live alerts on the car’s dashboard to alert the driver of hazards or traffic ahead.
In future, more In-Car apps will be available for car owners as the technology begins to evolve. We may even see app developers integrate the apps we already know and love into the car users dashboard. Automakers will be following the app development process clearly, in order to successfully deploy this into their vehicles. Car manufacturers have been keen to invest and embrace this technology. It will be interesting to see how this software further evolves over the next few years.
These Latest Tech Trends are important aspects as to how the industry is changing. Over the next few years, this latest tech will continue to increase in popularity. As a result, the automotive industry will well and truly be brought into the Digital Age.
For more information on how these trends can impact your business or to explore app development options, contact App Design Ireland. Whether you’re interested in creating an app for your business or enhancing your dealership’s digital capabilities, we’re here to help.