- Price promise allows customers to ask dealers for an exact price that dealer%27s must honor
- Company says 54%25 of shoppers want more clarity on exact price of car
- Company wants to take uncertainty out of pricing and speed up the buying process
DETROIT — Edmunds.com, one of the top websites for car shopping and automotive information, is hoping to revolutionize how people buy cars and eliminate the No. 1 most frustrating part of the car shopping process.
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According to Seth Berkowitz, president and chief operating officer of Edmunds.com, 54% of car shoppers say they want more clarity on the exact price of a car rather than haggle with dealers.
You are watching: Edmunds.com program offers shoppers set car prices
“The average American person cannot understand how it is that as an industry that we cannot deliver an actual car price to them,” Berkowitz said Wednesday at the Automotive Press Association in Detroit. “It is just totally mystifying to people.”
To solve that problem the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company has quietly rolled out a new product called price promise that allows customers to ask dealers to e-mail them an exact price for a car or truck they find through Edmunds.com’s site.
Customers can print out the certificate and take it with them to the dealership. The dealer is required to honor the price if the customer decides to buy the car.
The program is similar to a certificate program introduced by TrueCar.com in 2009. The difference is that TrueCar.com allows shoppers to print out a certificate after configuring a car on its website without asking the dealer to send an e-mail. Also, TrueCar.com receives $299 for every transaction that occurs. Edmunds.com, in contrast, charges dealers a flat fee per month.
“We believe that we don’t deserve to get paid until the dealer actually sells the car,” said Larry Dominique, executive vice president of industry for TrueCar.com. “We certainly were the leader and are out front ahead of everybody now.”
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About 6,200 dealers participate in TrueCar.com’s program, but far fewer consumers visit its site on a monthly basis.
Berkowitz said Edmunds.com launched price promise, last year with one dealer in Portland, Ore. Since then, more than 600 dealers have signed up.
Ultimately, Berkowitz said, Edmunds.com is hoping that the product allows the company to become a dominant source for car shopping.
“Our goal is to try and be as close as possible to the Amazon.com for the automotive experience,” Berkowitz said.
Edmunds.com’s price promise business model is designed to take the uncertainty out of pricing, speed up the buying process and also comes with the expectation that the customer will be given top-notch customer service.
Dealers who have participated find that they are able to sell their cars for $300 to $500 more than consumers who go through the more traditional price quote request process.
Customers, Berkowitz said, are willing to pay a little more than the best possible deal if they can save time, get great customer service and know they are getting a fair price.
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So far, 14% of customers who print out a price promise certificate follow through with a purchase of the original car or truck they looked at on the company’s website, Berkowitz said.
Edmunds.com came up with the price promise idea after they reviewed their own business and asked themselves what the company can do to differentiate itself from its competitors.
Edmunds.com competes with AutoTrader.com, Kelly Blue Book, Cars.com, TrueCar.com and a number of other sites that offer car shopping and pricing features.
With 18 million unique visitors per month, Edmunds.com is among the top three most visited websites for car shopping, Berkowitz said. AutoTrader.com, which lists new and used cars, gets 16 million unique visitors each month and TrueCar.com gets about 2 million unique visitors each month.
However, Edmunds.com has relationships with fewer dealers than AutoTrader.com and TrueCar.com.
More than 6,400 dealers list new cars for sale on Edmunds.com compared with about 20,000 dealers who list new cars for sale on AutoTrader.com.
Berkowitz said Edmunds.com plans to revamp its website in September to make the price promise shopping tool more prominent and will follow that website redesign with a national marketing campaign in October or November to promote price promise.
Source: https://us.congthucvatly.com
Category: Car
