With new car prices set to rise because of the weakness of the pound, dealers and manufacturers need to consider how to place more emphasis on the strength of their motor finance offerings.
James Tew, CEO at iVendi, said that it was important that potential customers were not deterred by headline price rises when the actual affordability of new cars remained, in most cases, very attractive.
“The SMMT has already said that it expects to see increases of 2-3% in the first few months of the year and if, as seems not unlikely, the pound weakens further against the dollar and the euro, there will be pressure for further rises.
“This has the potential to put off customers who were thinking of buying a new car but the solution is to ensure that the affordability of the vehicle through your motor finance offering is stressed wherever possible, but especially online.”
James said that web design had a large part to play in this, ensuring that wherever a car appeared, a sample motor finance offer was included along with tools such as a finance calculator and an eligibility checker.
“We advise dealers and manufacturers to ‘anchor’ the finance offer next to the vehicle so that even if the customer navigates away from the finance page, the key facts of the finance offer remain clearly visible next to the vehicle.”
He added that it was especially important that time was spent ensuring that motor finance worked well when web sites were viewed on mobile devices.
“In 2017, many – perhaps even the majority – of car retailing experiences start on a smartphone. You need your motor finance offering to be as clear and easy to use as possible when customers are browsing using using a phone or tablet.”